Neptune's Legacy
by Bard the Kiwi
Summary: After the Fall, the Battlestar Neptune waged a guerilla war against the Cylons. The war lasted six days. This is her story.
1. DAY ONE

**NEPTUNE'S ****LEGACY**

_**DAY ONE – DISTANT THUNDER**_

A blank star field is disrupted by a flash of pure energy, and where moments ago there had been airless void now lay a small brown ship, only a few metres long. Through the darkness, voices sprang out on invisible threads.

"Fairlight Station, this is Raptor 253, requesting approach confirmation"

"Copy Raptor 253, you are cleared to proceed. Neptune is waiting at berth five."

"Roger"

Raptor 253 passed above the blue globe of Aquaria, and headed towards the massive thirty-kilometre wide space station orbiting high above the northern hemisphere.

Inside the Raptor, Colonel Quinn moved to the vacant front seat, sitting beside his pilot for the trip, and looked out the window at the world below. The relatively small land masses of Aquaria were dwarfed by the sheer size of the oceans. Sparse cloud cover could be seen over Arctis, the primary land masse about to be consumed by the planet's night side. Aquaria possessed no capital city, and at roughly two billion had the least number of humans of all the twelve colonies.

"What do you think, Parker?"

"Sir... I think it's a step backwards."

Quinn was slightly amazed. "Really? Fast words coming from a recently promoted lieutenant."

Suddenly Parker couldn't help but trip over his words. "Sorry sir, but I just feel this ship isn't the best step for... well I think maybe... "

Quinn laughed. "It's ok lieutenant, I'm not gonna get angry. I actually like what Admiral Nellis has done. Not many Admirals would chose an old ship over a new one"

"THAT was my point sir. I mean the Neptune's a good ship but she's no Atlantia"

Quinn nodded. "I have to agree with you there."

Parker tried to inject more life into the conversation. "Sir, don't you think Fairlight... well, it's a bizarre place for a refit."

Quinn sat back in his chair. Fairlight was now looming large in the window and various ships, both old and new, flew between the spider-like tendrils of the station's docking arms. Generally regarded as a wrecker's yard for ships past their prime, it was often used by the Colonial military for raiding spare parts.

"On the contrary I think it's the perfect place, although only in the context of the Neptune. If you had a fifty year old Battlestar, where else would you look for replacement components"

"True sir." Parker took the Raptor into a dive, taking them between two docking arms, one servicing a new Mercury class Battlestar, the other a twenty year old Magellan class freighter in the midst of being disassembled.

"Sir... how long will you be staying with us?"

This raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"

"Well, a few of the knuckle draggers heard you got a promotion to the Triton-"

"I turned it down. I felt I still had more to offer the Admiral. Besides, plenty of time for promotions in the navy later on."

That was the end of the conversation as far as Quinn was concerned. He knew of the men talking behind his back, but didn't mind. True, he had avoided promotion three times already. Commanding officer of the Triton was appealing, but he wanted more time. One day he thought, he'd get his own ship.

Just not today.

The Raptor cleared the central hub of Fairlight station and headed for the outermost docking pylon. That's when they made their first visual sighting of the Neptune. Same vintage as the legendary Battlestar Galactica, but where the navy had opted to convert that ship into a museum, Nellis had convinced top brass to allow his ship – the first he served on all those years ago – to undergo probably the most radical redesign a ship of her class had ever done. Quinn sat forward to get a better view.

Outside, the Battlestar Neptune looked nothing like her old 'rusting' self. Her ribs were virtually all covered up, replaced with a strong – albeit considered largely unnecessary – triple hull plating. Her flight pods were now permanently fixed, no longer needing to retract when she jumped. The two arms holding the pods had been replaced by three stronger, thicker and more rigid arms, which if nothing else according to Nellis would allow the design to match the rest of the Colonial fleet. Underneath, two additional arms came up from the lower hull and attached to the bottom of the flight pods, further giving the ship more strength. The cavity in the main hull that would normally accept the flight pods when they retracted was now filled in, giving the ship a much larger crew and/or emergency capacity. Quinn noticed the small worker drones applying the last of the paintjob to the new hull. The dark blue of the new signiant paintwork matched the colour that prominently featured on Aquaria's Colonial Flag; the Admiral's home colony.

"Not bad" Parker muttered to himself, as he looped the Raptor into a low arc, and brought the ship to rest in the Starboard flight pod.

- I - I - I -

Quinn was finding his way to the CIC easily enough. He had been aboard one of these ships before moving to the Solaria. The redesign has made much of the interior of the ship very modern. The arching corridors and architecture of fifty years ago had been replaced by the newer hexagonal design that featured so prominently in contemporary Battlestars. Surprisingly he felt a little sad. The ship looked like it should on the outside, but the interior had changed. He had hoped the CIC hadn't suffered the same fate as the corridors.

He was wrong. He walked past the glass panelled doors that rotated as he entered, and saw a small and functional CIC, just like the Solaria.

"Officer on deck!"

A young cadet beside him had yelled, and instantly everyone in the room stood to attention.

"As you were" Quinn said, walking up to the combat table, everyone else going back to their duties. He looked around the room. "Where's the Admiral?"

The cadet moved forward, even though the question wasn't directed at him. "Still on Picon sir. He said he would be here in two hours."

"Good, cadet...?"

"Resno sir"

"First assignment?"

"Yes sir." He allowed himself a small smile.

"Good. Remember it well. It only happens once." Resno nodded. "What's our status?"

"Only half the crew are on board sir, maybe 1200 or so. The rest we pick up at Canceron. In terms of hardware we're fully loaded with Raptors but only have a single squadron of twenty vipers, again the rest we get at Canceron. Just waiting on the Tylium supply from Fairlight and we'll be ready for test runs. Oh and we've got a full stock of munitions too."

Quinn starred at him. "So what's the delay?"

The cadet was nervous, but did a good job of hiding it. "Something about paperwork sir... er... the Admiral didn't fill something out-"

Quinn let out a laugh, which distracted other crewmembers in CIC. "Yeah, that's Jonathan for you. The Admiral'll order you to do something then work out how to officially sanction it later. Doesn't surprise me in the least we don't have fuel. Anything else"

"Yes sir, we're doing a test of the CNP system in about twenty minutes."

- I - I - I -

Quinn settled into his quarters, laying on his bed for the first time. Hard, he thought. Quinn stood up and checked the mattress. It was as textually smooth as regulations would allow. He smiled to himself. His first week on the Solaria was painful as well, but then he found out a practical joke had been played on him. He found small metallic ornaments had been shoved just inside the lining, giving him sleepless nights. This time though, it was just the mattress to blame.

Quinn was crossing to his dresser to put his clothes away when he felt the room shimmer. It felt familiar, but needed to check. He crossed to the phone and got CIC.

"Did we just jump?"

Cadet Resno was on the other end. "Aye sir, we brought the CNP system up but it activated the FTL and before we could shut it down we jumped away."

Quinn was worried. That kind of FTL displacement shockwave at close quarters could easily have caused considerable damage to the station and surrounding ships. "I'm on my way"

- I - I - I -

Quinn entered CIC to see everyone busy about their station. "Sitrep?"

"Sir, we've jumped some distance from the colonies. Closest is Aerilon at a guess. But navigation is shot to hell, we're trying to get everything back."

"The CNP is a network protocol, it doesn't actually instruct any local system - any idea what caused the jump?"

Another technician stepped up to Quinn - Lambert he thought his name was. "We're still checking but it looks like a virus entered the system when the CNP was launched."

Quinn picked up the phone. "Get me the Master at Arms."

- I - I - I -

It didn't take long for Quinn to track down who was responsible. He entered the room and looked through the thick bulletproof glass of the cell. A man sat by the solitary table, swamped by two marines armed with rifles.

"Come to see the weirdo, sir?" said Grendel, the Master at Arms.

"Who is he?" asked Quinn, ignoring the comment.

"He says his name is Simon, one of the engineers working in the drive room."

"Did he put up a fight?"

"That's the weird part. He just walked up and surrendered to us."

Quinn waited for a moment, then stepped through to the cell. Simon looked up, the light showing the sweat that was coming down his dark skin.

"Simon, was it? I'm Colonel Quinn. I understand you sabotaged my ship."

Simon shook his head. "Saved it."

"What?"

"From the holocaust. You're one of the lucky ones. I couldn't go through with it."

Quinn stepped up to the man. "Go through with what?"

"Have you ever wondered what happened to the Cylons for the last forty years? No one has seen them, heard from them. You don't even know what they... look like".

Those last words worried Quinn, but he let a growing and increasingly sickening thought in the back of his mind stay there for now. "Who are you?"

"I'm Number Four. I was created twenty five years ago." He stared straight into Quinn' eyes. "I'm a Cylon"

Quinn allowed himself a smile. Instead of metallic ornaments in his bed, he was being joked on with morons. He half expected that overweight stripper Nellis had surprised him with on Picon last year to come bursting through the door. "A Cylon?"

"Yes, and had you stayed at Fairlight station, you would've died too."

"That's not funny"

"It wasn't meant to be". Simon sat back in his chair. The restraints holding his hands became visible from under the table. Quinn felt it unnecessary but then again, if he was a Cylon he'd rather have him shackled.

"Look" Simon began, "I spent three long years hiding in the fleet, moving from ship to ship, learning ways to destroy the various models of Battlestars. Then last year that scientist, Baltar, gave us the means to our goal."

"You mean the CNP?"

"It has a backdoor. Far easy to exploit, too."

"I can't believe Baltar would miss that."

"Normally he wouldn't, but his assistant made sure it would be in place. She can be very... persuasive"

Quinn studied him. "If you are who you say you are... why the change of heart?"

Simon lowered his head. "I've grown attached to humans. I feel the plan is wrong. We shouldn't be destroying humanity, we should be embracing it."

The hairs on the back of Quinn' neck stood up. Until now he thought, assuming this Simon was telling the truth, that any war the Cylons had would be directed at the Colonial military. But now he started to worry about the colonies.

Forty years. That time had show the colonies grow considerably in terms of military strength. But if the Colonials had grown that much, then the Cylons...

Quinn left the room, but shouted orders to the guards. "He stays put, no one enters, and for frak's sake keep him alive"

- I - I - I -

The bright sunlight overhead dazzled Bragen as he drove up to the park near the wharf. He looked out the window down to the business district in the city of Loki, one of Leonis' most profitable areas.

Not that it gave him any benefits. His sunglasses were scratched after years of mistreatment, and finally conceded his wife was right; he needed a new pair. That would mean spending money. He turned the car off and turned to his left. Marie was still engrossed in her magazine. Bragen resisted the urge for sarcasm, but he couldn't help it.

"Nice that we had this long conversation on the way over. Good thing we did cos I'm going away for such a long time."

Marie closed the magazine quickly it made a slapping noise. The little girl in the carseat behind them stirred as she slept.

"I didn't ask for you to do this" Marie began. "You could've taken lots of other jobs closer to home."

"We discussed this" Bragen replied, remembering how often he'd said those three words over the past month. "We need the money. This job gives us the most in the fastest time."

"But three months Bragen... you'll miss Tara's first words, her first steps..."

Bragen opened the door and stepped out. He opened the hatch at the back and pulled his big dufflebag out. Marie was already going round the car to the driver's door. Bragen looked at her.

"What, you're not even gonna come see me off?"

"Look in the back seat." Marie indicated, "Tara's still asleep, you know how grumpy she gets if you wake her from a nap."

Bragen thought for a moment then slammed the hatch down, a little harder than he should've. A small whimper was heard from the back seat. Marie gave Bragen a pissed off look. Bragen just smiled.

Ten minutes later they were walking along the pier, the large shape of the cold storage vessel _DeepFreeze_ was parked in its berth beside them. Tara was in Bragen's arms, laughing at the birds circling overhead. Up ahead, other family members were saying goodbye to crewmembers boarding the ship. The sun was really hot today.

"How's the head?" Marie asked, not taking her eyes off the pier.

"Let it go, I'm fine".

"Dan-"

"Don't do this Marie, not today. I've got enough meds to help me through the time away."

Bragen knew Marie would bring this up until he was blue in the face. It was her way of reminding him he can't run from the past. She was good about it, but at times it got annoying. Being 'protective' she called it.

They stopped at the ramp for No. 2 pier. No one was on it. "Workman's entrance?" Marie said with a small smile.

"Yep. OK pumpkin, daddy will see you in three months. Be good to mummy ok?" Tara smiled.

"Mom".

Marie and Bragen both stared at Tara, who was grinning at them. "Did she just-"

"Yes I think so..." Marie took Tara from Bragen, and he put his arm around them both.

"You're _my_ ladies. Remember that. It won't be that long I promise"

Marie kissed him and he turned, walking up the plank backwards, waving like an idiot to Tara, who was laughing at him. When he reached the door he turned and put his bag down just inside the airlock.

Immediately he knew something was wrong. People were moving frantically in the corridor inside the ship. A yellow klaxon was on, but he knew they were still an hour from launch. Outside, a commotion had started at No. 1 pier, with people rushing into the ship, some falling off the ramp onto the hard concrete below.

"What the frak...?"

Then someone in the crowd yelled out. He was holding a wireless radio.

"The Cylons are coming!"

All at once Bragen knew what he had to do. He yelled out to Marie, who had started to walk back to the car.

"Marie! Get back here now!"

Marie turned and looked at him. "What?" She could barely hear him.

"Get on the frakking ship!"

Marie looked confused. "What? Why? Look, I'll go get her bottle first" She turned back towards the car.

Bragen screamed at her. "IF YOU DON'T GET ON THE SHIP NOW YOU'RE GONNA DIE!"

Marie turned back, white as a sheet. Suddenly a building in the business district a few miles away caught their attention. Makatoshi Plaza, one of the largest in the city, seemed to shatter as fire and debris rained from the upper floors. Two more buildings exploded. Bragen could see contrails of what looks like a missile fly overhead towards a distant suburb.

Marie held onto Tara and ran for the ramp. Bragen held the door, which he could now feel was starting to close on automatics. Below his feet, he could feel the vibrations of the drive engines powering up.

"Hurry!"

Marie had reached the bottom of the ramp. Only a few more seconds. Above them, an inhuman whining noise could be heard, and bat-like aircraft filled the skies above the city. More buildings exploded and were burning.

An alarm went off beside Bragen. Emergency override. The hatch suddenly pushed with all its hydraulic might, forcing him back inside as it slammed shut.

"No! NOOOO!"

Outside, the small ship hummed, then a flash of light erupted in the space the _DeepFreeze_ occupied, and FTL'd away. The shockwave blew Marie off the ramp, and back thirty feet onto the loading area. She rolled around, clutching at the broken leg. All around people were running, bleeding, dying. People were yelling but she couldn't hear anything. The shockwave had shattered her eardrums, instantly making her deaf. Blood poured out of her ears, and her vision was blurry.

In the skies the bat-like aircraft were gone, which worried her. Then she came to her senses. She looked around, scanning the area for any sign of her target – then she saw the purple.

Tara's purple dress. She was lying face down. A pool of blood surrounded her.

Marie tried to crawl over but found both her legs now wouldn't work. She tried to call out, but nothing happened. She lay on her back and looked up. The last image she ever saw before the darkness took her was the fiery red tip of the warhead, ready to take her into the arms of the Gods.

- I - I - I -

Quinn entered CIC. "Sitrep?"

Resno looked up. "We're still stuck here sir. FTL computers are down, but engineers are reporting they should have them back under our control within the hour."

Quinn slammed his hands on the desk. "Frak it!"

Everyone in the room stared at him. He knew he had their attention now, whether he wanted it or not. He hesitated. Not many of the CIC crew were from the Solaria, so they wouldn't know about his insecurities. But now wasn't the time for that. With Nellis far away, he knew he had to act. And act fast.

"Action stations. Set condition one throughout the ship. Mr Resno, order the deck chiefs to strip the CNP out of the Vipers and Raptors, I don't want a single plane in the air until that happens. Kill Neptune's network too"

"Aye sir".

"Mr Lambert, contact Picon Fleet Headquarters, tell them to watch for enemy ships and to move the President to a secure location"

"Sir?"

"You have hearing problems, Lambert?"

"No... no sir". Lambert moved off to communications.

Quinn then turned to the others in the room. "Helm, ahead full. Give us some speed. Weapons, have triple A stand by for assault batteries. What's the proper status on the fuel?"

Another tech, Mathias, turned to look at Quinn. "About 6% of reserves, and only half the Vipers have been fuelled yet."

"Why so low?"

"Engineers and dockworkers didn't want a Battlestar fully laden with fuel while they worked."

"Figures, but I would've hoped-"

Quinn stopped and starred at Lambert. He was as white as a sheet.

"What?"

"Sir" Lambert started, his voice breaking slightly, "It's Picon Fleet Headquarters sir... they've been nuked"

The room fell silent, save for the loud klaxon blaring through the speakers.

"A massive Cylon attack force has appeared above every major colony. Fleet yards above Scorpia, Sagitarron and Canceron have fallen, and... Aquaria, sir. Fairlight station has been destroyed too."

All eyes went to Quinn. He knew he'd have his own command one day, just not like this.

"I am assuming full command of this vessel. Once we're FTL capable we'll jump to the nearest Tylium supply depot and attempt a resupply. Hopefully we can get as much as we can before being attacked."

Resno stepped forward, his face showing what everyone was feeling. "Sir, what about the colonies? If the Cylons are using nukes-"

Lambert broke in. "The Cylons are using nukes all over the system. In places where they aren't, Basestars have been spotted entering the atmospheres and ground forces have been deployed. It's a Gods-damned invasion."

"It's more than that" began Quinn, "It's genocide. They want us dead."

Resno was a wreck waiting to happen. "Sir, we have to get back and-"

"And do WHAT? We're on an aging Battlestar with a failing computer system and bingo fuel. We aren't going anywhere"

Resno wanted to argue, as if he might sway what little argument he had. The rest of the CIC crew looked equally drained.

Quinn knew he had to hold it together. His fiancée was back on the Solaria, and wondered if they had managed to jump, or had an equally remorseful Cylon on board.

He knew the next few hours would be critical.

- I - I - I -

"..I repeat, this is Major Valmar aboard Colonial Heavy 525, please respond."

Major Alex Valmar was part of a platoon of Viper jocks and Raptor pilots taking a military transport back to Picon, when all hell apparently broke out. She was the senior ranking officer on the civilian-borrowed vessel, and took command after various wireless communications confirmed a massive attack was happening against the colonies. She was trying Picon Fleet Headquarters, then Canceron Control, then anyone else who might be listening, but each time got nothing back.

A lieutenant in a flight suit came into the cockpit. The pilot of Colonial Heavy 525 nodded to him as he entered.

"Anything Sir? The men are getting a little jumpy back there"

Valmar threw the coms unit back against the console. "Nothing. Not a Gods damn thing. Whatever is going on out there happened so quickly and brutally it knocked out all the communications throughout the system."

"What about the other colonies? Tauron and Gemenon? They're far enough away-"

Valmar rubbed her eyes. She knew drinking with the pilots the night before they left was a bad idea. "The same. They're all... dead"

She knew she shouldn't have used that word but it snuck out. The pilot beside her breathed a heavy sigh. It was easy to see he was hiding his tears. The Lieutenant knelt down beside her, but made no attempt to lower his voice.

"So... now what? Where do we go? From the sounds of it the fleet's taking a hell of a pounding. We're like ammunition without guns back there, Major, those pilots need planes to fly-"

She stood up and grabbed his collar, her strength catching him off guard.

"You think I don't know that? Now we don't have the ability to co-ordinate who's still functioning and who isn't, so get back there and tell those pilots that have wireless receivers to monitor all the signals they can. If there's still a functioning Battlestar out there, we have to find it."

- I - I - I -

"Got it sir!"

Quinn looked up from the mountain of paperwork that was falling out of his hands. Reports from all over the system indicated the battle wasn't going well, if you could call it a battle at all. Cylon Basestars and even simple raider squadrons had destroyed around sixty five Battlestars now, including the Picon flagship Atlantia and its entire group. Pacifica, Zeus, Cassandra, all the big names in the fleet were down. Solaria, his former command, had been lost defending Aerilon, taking with it his beloved fiancée Petryce. Even the rugged Triton, the ship he was due to take command of before he backed out, had been destroyed, but had managed to ram a Basestar before she died. He had hoped the yell from Resno was the good news they'd all been been wanting.

"FTL restored?"

"Yes sir, and the CNP has been removed from all Vipers and Raptors, and from the Neptune herself."

"Good". Now it gets interesting, Quinn thought to himself. "Helm, lay in a course for the Odin refinery, stand by to jump when ready. Lieutenant, I want a dozen Vipers in the tubes ready to launch at a moment's notice."

Resno gave him a confused look, and almost missed the order. "Sir, I'm a-"

"You got promoted, we'll sort out the jewellery later. Stand by for jump."

Resno took a step back, and allowed a small but potent smile to himself. Lambert stepped up to Quinn. "Sir, the Odin refinery is inside the asteroid belt between Caprica and Leonis. You sure the Cylons won't be there?"

"That's what I'm hoping, but obviously there's no guarantee. The Cylons are too busy dealing with everyone else, they might not consider a supply depot for sublight ships to be a tactical advantage."

"Not yet anyway".

"No. But even if they did, this ship has teeth. If a Cylon gets in our way, we'll frak the lot of them."

"Sir..."

Quinn was already thumbing his nose through some reports. "Hmm?"

Lambert took a step closer, and lowered his voice. "I was just wondering sir... how did you know the attack was imminent?"

Quinn looked around CIC; no one else had heard him. "I had a contact that had reported worrying information. I had wanted to share that intel with Picon Command but ran out of time."

"A contact?"

Quinn stared at him. "Everything alright Lieutenant?"

Lambert cleared his collar. "Sir, I wasn't wanting to focus on that, but... well, you haven't chosen an EXO yet. I know many Commanders and Colonels don't keep secrets from each other, so..."

Quinn's eyes went back to the reports, but his mind was elsewhere. He didn't even hear the rest of Lambert's sentence. But Lambert was right; he hadn't chosen one. He was hoping that any second Nellis would walk in through the glass doors and everything would be as it was, that the burdens would now be lifted from his shoulders. But he knew that wasn't gonna be the case.

"You after the position?" he said finally.

Lambert smiled. "I was hoping for it. I mean this ship is seriously lacking in officer material and we are understaffed and I was hoping I was doing a good enough job here in CIC-"

"Alright alright, listen, we'll try it on a temporary basis" Quinn began. "You don't have proper training although I know many people on this ship don't. You'll need to step up your game if you're to keep it."

"But sir, with lack of candidates-"

Quinn turned fully to face him, giving Lambert his full, undivided and, as Lambert could tell, unwanted attention. "I'd much rather have Janley as my EXO."

"Janley?" Lambert said, slightly louder than he expected. Janley turned and looked over at the conversation. Quinn waved her off. "Sir, she's just a cadet, like over half the people on this ship. She can't-"

"Can't what? How do you know once she isn't thrown into the fray that she won't suddenly become the most talented and natural officer in the history of the twelve colonies? Besides, she's prettier than you."

And with that Quinn turned and walked away. Resno looked up. "Course plotted for the Odin Refinery sir".

Quinn looked back at Lambert. He was clearly trying to work out what Quinn had just said, or meant, and kept looking up and back at Janley.

Quinn smiled. "Jump."

- I - I - I -

The space rippled as the Neptune leapt into the asteroid belt. Almost immediately a rock smashed into the upper hull, causing minimal damage.

In CIC everyone held onto the consoles. Quinn moved to the combat table, looking up at the DRADIS screens.

"Status?"

Resno checked his screens. "Checkerboard is green. All systems online. DRADIS showing the refinery six kilometres to starboard and... no sign of enemy ships."

_For now_, Quinn thought. "Helm, ahead one half, two degrees down bubble, starboard turn 80 degrees."

Outside the huge lumbering bulk of the Neptune turned towards the refinery, a large six-tiered platform with bulging tanks beneath each. One ship was attached to the platform, a Tylium tanker. The other five tiers were empty.

From the base of the starboard flight pod, twelve vipers streaked out and headed for the refinery. Four Raptors left the same flight pod heading for the same destination.

In CIC, Quinn had the phone in his hand, trying to comfort and control the man on the other end.

"Please... PLEASE listen, Captain, we need your help-"

"Oh Gods... my family are dead... DEAD!"

The sobbing could be heard all over CIC. Quinn signalled Lambert to kill the speakers, and the room was plunged into silence again. Quinn thought for a moment, and then held the phones to his head.

"Captain... do you want revenge?"

"Uh... what?"

"Revenge, captain. Do you want to kill the bastards responsible for this?"

"Well... well, yeah, I do. Naturally I do, I can't believe you would ask-"

"Then shut the frak up and listen. Right now there's a handful of Colonial Vipers heading to your location. If you don't free up the fuel lines on one of your tanks, they have orders to open fire and destroy the central hub."

"But that will kill us!"

"Yeah, it will. Given the redundancy built into your refinery we can still take the fuel without your help. Now you can't get revenge if you're dead can you?"

"No...." He started crying again. Quinn slammed the phone down.

"I'm done talking with that frakker. Lambert, find out which berth we're docking at. Resno, take the ship in, but watch out for asteroids. Link up as soon as we're in range, and use a transport tube to evacuate the station. Might as well take the cry babies with us."

"Sir", Lambert started, "We're picking up a transmission from the Battlestar Galactica. Commander Adama has taken command of the fleet and asking all ships to rendezvous at Ragnar."

"Galactica? As in the soon-to-be-museum-ship Galactica? The fleets falling apart and that old ship is still flying AND is now our flagship?" Quinn couldn't believe it, but then again she was a tough ship. Adama wasn't the kind to lay down and die.

"Lambert, send an encoded message, tell them we will rendezvous with them as soon as we've refuelled."

"Yes sir, but there's a lot of jamming going on in the system. Can't guarantee the message will get through."

"Do your best." Quinn moved to the exit. "You have the conn."

- I - I - I -

Quinn entered the cell to find Simon on the floor and the two guards standing over him, their rifles reversed. Blood was on the handles.

"What the frak is going on?"

The two guards pulled away quickly, standing to attention. "Sir" said one of them, "we were just administering justice to the prisoner, sir".

"You mean beating the frak out of the only source of intel we have? You're both dismissed. Have the master at arms send two more guards down here. You'll be dealt with later."

The two guards filed out of the room, no emotion regarding what they just did registering on their faces. Quinn walked over to the crumpled form of Simon on the floor. His face was bloodied, and his left eye had a burst a blood vessel. Quinn resisted everything in his body to punching Simon in the face. Instead he grabbed him by the shoulders picked him up and slumped him back in his chair.

"Thanks" Simon said, blood spilling from his mouth.

"Don't. Don't even try. Millions are dying out there. Millions by the hours. Even if they survived the initial bombardments the colonies will uninhabitable long term due to the radioactive fallout."

"I told you, I didn't want this to happen."

"Then why didn't you come forward sooner! Why wait until now?"

"Because there's another Cylon on board."

That got Quinn's attention. He'd been so busy with the attacks and finding Simon he hadn't even thought about the possibility of another Cylon on board.

"What does he – or she – look like?"

"If you get me to a console I'll show you."

- I - I - I -

_Mom_.

Bragen woke up from a bad dream. He was curled up in a cabin, the single word still rolling around his brain. The slow sound of the engines throbbing away behind the bulkhead was keeping him up. His thoughts were of his wife and daughter, and of the family members left behind on Leonis.

And she had said 'mom'. The only word she ever said, or at least he ever heard her say. The tears came back.

The room shimmered again, and Bragen heard the FTL alarm. The ship had jumped seven times since they'd left Leonis. Every time they found a place to rest they jumped again. The Cylons kept showing up and chasing them.

He rolled over and looked up at the ceiling. He knew he had to make a choice. _Either give up, or get off your ass_. That's what his Pyramid coach had said in high school.

Bragen left the room and made it to the command deck. On his way through the corridors there were people lying down, crying as he had been. The lucky ones, he thought to himself. Maybe he should've stayed back on Leonis, and perished with his family. At least he wouldn't be put through the torment of what lay ahead. The command deck was very small and functional, but packed with people. The ship was only designed to run with around forty crew members, yet had maybe three times that. A large man with a beard standing near the starmap noticed Bragen enter.

"I'm not even gonna ask how you feelin'" he said. Bragen knew it was meant in kindness.

"Did we jump again Jacobs?" Bragen asked, starring up at the DRADIS screens.

"Yeah, 'nother raider appeared so we left. Didn't want to take any chances, eh?"

"I don't blame you." Bragen starred at the starmap to his right. They were now somewhere near Tauron.

Jacobs stared at him for a second, then tried to raise something that was one his mind. "Look... if you got any ideas ...we'd gladly hear them. You served in the colonial military, we haven't."

Bragen looked at him, and the others in the room. Most eyes were on him. Bragen went defensive.

"Look, people... I only served as a tech for two years aboard a Gunstar. Hardly command material."

"Are any of us?" Jacobs said, resting against the side of the starmap.

Bragen thought for a moment. He wanted to do what was right.

_Mom_.

He still could hear her voice. He closed his eyes. He could see her smile.

He opened them again, and turned back to the starmap.

"Alright... we need to get out of the shipping lanes. Let's try... here"

Bragen pointed to a messy point of the starmap far away from Tauron.

"The asteroid belt?"

"Yeah" said Bragen, "There's a little known Tylium refinery there we might be able to use."

- I - I - I -

Resno was checking his notes when a full squad of marines entered. They instantly raised their guns and focused on a man near communications. Quinn stood behind them.

"Mr Lambert, you're under arrest under suspicion of being a Cylon agent. You will will come with us immediately."

Lambert seemed shocked, then lunged forwards and reached under his console, pulling out a pistol and grabbing Janley nearby.

"I don't think so Colonel."

"There's no way out Lambert. One shot and you're dead."

"Yeah but I kill this female and it's one less you can procreate with."

Quinn didn't like what he was hearing. On one hand Lambert was simply delaying the inevitable, but on the other, he was correct; their species was being wiped out and they were gonna need to procreate sooner or later if they were to survive.

"You can drop the charade Aaron, it's over."

Lambert reacted to the name with surprise, then made his decision. "I guess I don't need this hostage anymore." Lambert pushed the pistol closer to her temple.

Quinn moved forward "Don't-"

BANG! A shot rang out. Quinn flinched, then looked at Janley.

She was fine. Alive. Uninjured.

But Lambert beside her had a small hole in his forehead. After a second, he released his grip of Janley, and fell to the ground, dead. Quinn looked back to the shooter.

It was Resno. He was holding a revolver, and still shaking. Quinn moved over and helped him lower the pistol.

"Nice shot!"

Resno looked to Quinn, surprised by the joy on the colonel's face.

"I... I used to be champion at my rifle range on Aquaria."

"Lieutenant, you just saved this ship." Quinn leaned in closer. "And I think Janley over there might want to thank you in her own special way."

Resno looked at Janley. She smiled back at him. Like him, she was on her first mission. He remembered her briefly from the ride from Aquaria to Fairlight station.

"Sergeant, clear up the body, take it down to the morgue. Resno?"

"Sir?" He sounded a little too eager, but Quinn was happy to see confidence rising in the young man's eyes.

"Continue with the resupply. Let me know when it's done."

Quinn started to leave. Resno called after him. "Where will you be sir?"

"Planning our fight back."

- I - I - I -

"DRADIS contact!"

The pilot learned forward to get a better look. Behind him, Valmar looked over his shoulder, a cup of water in her hands.

"Who is it? Max, spin the drives."

Another fighter pilot had taken the co-pilots seat, and starting the FTL prep.

The pilot struggled with his controls. "I'm not sure, DRADIS was due to be upgraded next month, too many bugs with this older version."

"We need a clearer picture to-"

"Colonial transponders! They're friendly. ID match confirms it."

Valmar grabbed the mic. "This is Colonial Heavy 525 to unidentified colonial vessel, please respond."

A burst of static, then "This is Colonial Freight Master Long Haul out of Picon. To whom am I speaking?"

"Long Haul, this is Major Alex Valmar of the Colonial military, my squad and I were en route to Picon when the fighting broke out."

There was a long pause, during which Valmar imagined the crew of the Long Haul were discussing what they should do. No doubt the Long Haul was carrying something of importance so it wouldn't surprise her if the ship FTL'd away in the next ten seconds.

"Colonial Heavy 525, we are transporting military equipment to Sagitarron. If you could validate your rank Major, then we will turn the consignment over to you."

Valmar looked puzzled. "Consignment? What exactly are you guys carrying?"

- I - I - I -

Simon stood upright, clearly worried. The guards trained their weapons on him, but Quinn waved them off.

"You... killed him?"

Quinn didn't seem to understand. "Yeah, why, is that a problem? Suddenly don't like it if your own kind get killed?"

"You have to jump the ship and get out of here."

"Jump? Why?"

Simon sat back down. "There's something else I haven't told you. It's about what happens when we die."

- I - I - I -

Deep in space two Cylons Basestars guarded a smaller ship, its arching architecture clearly not of human origin.

Inside, a man bearing a striking resemblance to Lambert walked down a corridor laced with spot lights and a big red strip down the walls, and entered a large room. Standing at a row of tables was a handful of people, who smiled as Lambert entered. A woman with long brown hair had her hand in a water-filled console.

"How did it go?" asked a blonde woman.

"Not good" said Lambert. "They found me out before I was able to destroy or disable the ship."

"A pity" said a tall brunette. "Still, we have another on board that can help remedy that."

"Somehow I doubt that. They found me fairly quickly. They even referred to me as Aaron."

Lambert starred at a man across the room that looked exactly like Simon.

"He must've switched sides" Simon said. "We've had reports of many sympathisers turning up after the attacks began. Sadly, it appears my line is weaker-minded than the rest of you."

"Then he'll be boxed when he downloads like the others" an older man wearing a blue tunic said, stepping down from a raised platform. "We can't allow fifth columnist personalities to appear in the fleet. It would be bad for morale."

"What do you want me to do?" Lambert asked. "I have the co-ordinates of the Neptune. Wouldn't be hard to kill it. She doesn't have many Vipers on board."

"No" the old man said. "Leave the Neptune to us. I want you to travel to Caprica. Turns out we weren't as thorough as we wanted. We have an opportunity to study the survivors and maybe run a few experiments. Simon has already focused his sights on a place in the Deshault mountains. I want you and a Six to head up a team focusing on Human/Cylon procreation. Can you handle that?"

Lambert smiled. "Of course."

- I - I - I -

Quinn entered CIC to see a team finishing the cleanup of Lambert's death. Resno was looking at DRADIS.

"Sir refuelling is going well. We're at fifty two percent and rising."

"Is that all the tanks?" Quinn asked.

"Well... it's the main tanks sir. We were focusing on the primaries first-"

Quinn shook his head. "No no no, this ship has more redundancy than you can imagine. She's got primary, secondary and even tertiary tanks, so fill 'em all. This might be the last resupply we ever get to do."

Resno nodded. "Aye sir." He moved to his console and pressed a few buttons. After a few seconds "Sir, we're now at thirty seven percent.

"Frak." Quinn and Resno shared a smile. Quinn thought for a moment.

"Resno... get the tanker docked at the station to start filling up, just in case."

"Aye s-"

"DRADIS contact!"

Quinn spun round to see Janley, who had taken Lambert's duties.

"ID?"

"Incoming... sir they're Colonial. Two ships, a transport and a freighter." Janley smiled.

"Thank the Gods" Quinn said to himself.

Janley put her hand to her ear. "Sir, I'm receiving communications."

"On speaker".

The speaker burst into life with static, which then settled down.

"...repeat, this is Colonial Heavy 525 to unidentified Battlestar, please respond."

Quinn grabbed the phone. "This is the Battlestar Neptune to Colonial Heavy 525. You don't know how glad we are to hear your voice."

Shrills and laughter could be heard in the background of the transmission.

"Sir this is Major Alex Valmar, requesting permission to dock. I've got about fifty pilots eager to help out anyway they can."

"Unfortunately Major we only have twenty planes, but we'll gladly take any survivors we can at this point."

"I think we can help you out there" she replied.

- I - I - I -

"Forty Vipers?"

Lesterson, the deck chief, was amazed. The tall skinny man with glasses was rubbing his hands through his hair.

"That's what they said" Quinn began, "The freighter was carrying the birds en route to Sagitarron when the attacks broke out. There's also a dozen Raptors on board. Jackpot I say."

Colonial Heavy 525 had pulled into the port flight pod, and the crews were now disembarking. Pilots were walking past saluting as they went. Quinn had to get used to it, he told himself. Finally a tall woman with striking red hair moved to stand before him, and saluted him.

"Sir, Major Alex Valmar, requesting permission to come aboard."

"Granted" he said ,with a smile too obvious to hide. He saluted her back and then shook her hand.

"It's so good to find survivors after this" she said, unable to hide her excitement as well.

"I know. And well done on finding the Vipers. Gods knows we needed them."

They started to walk down the deck, moving aside to allow pilots to pass, and people showing them where to go.

"Sir... how much have you heard about back home?"

Quinn didn't want to give too much away with his expression, but felt he failed miserably. "I'm sorry Major, but the news isn't good. The fleet is all but gone. We've had reports of nuclear detonations on all twelve colonies, and above almost all the major cities. But after a while we stopped receiving reports. I guess because..."

He trailed off, and her expression showed him he needn't continue. The speaker above his head rang out.

"Colonel Quinn, please contact CIC."

Quinn moved to the wall and grabbed the nearest handset. "This is Quinn."

"Resno here sir. We've had another DRADIS contact. A small storage ship called the DeepFreeze. CBDR, docking in 10 minutes."

"Good to hear. Tell the refuelers to hurry up. I wanna get the frak out of here."

- I - I - I -

The resupply had gone well. Pilots from Neptune were ferried over to the freighter and one by one the Vipers were refuelled and launched to be picked up by Neptune's waiting flight pods. Lesterson had shuffled things around so the pods now had thirty birds each, and Kebble, one of Valmar's older pilots, was brought in to serve as deck chief for the port flight pod, which up until now had been essentially dormant due to the refit. The Raptors were also distributed evenly.

In CIC, Quinn was watching over all the proceedings when Bragen entered.

"Sir."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr Bragen, I hear the crew of the DeepFreeze are grateful for your decision making."

"I simply pointed at a map and made a decision" he shrugged.

"Sometimes they're the best. Stick around, CIC could use someone like you."

Bragen was about to answer when Janley yelled out. "DRADIS contact! Multiple signals, bearing 241 carem 325, CBDR."

"Friendly?"

Janley looked up. "I don't think so."

Outside three Basestars had jumped into range on the outskirts on the asteroid field, and had instantly launched raiders. The large ships began to move in towards the refinery in the distance.

"How long?" asked Quinn.

"They'll be on us in five minutes." Janley said.

"Frak it... Mr Resno, tell the civilian ships to jump to the failsafe co-ordinates, and stand by to jump ourselves."

"Sir, the Tylium tanker is still filling up. She'll be done in five minutes."

Quinn smiled. "Ah well... it looks like we get to fight after all." Quinn turned and walked with presence towards the combat table, keeping an eye on the DRADIS screens. All doubt that had once crossed his mind was gone. This was his ship. His crew. And he'd be damned if anyone was gonna take that away. "Action stations, set condition one throughout the ship, launch all alert Vipers, get a firing solution on the incoming targets."

Outside twenty vipers roared out of the starboard launch tubes and headed straight for the enemy. Valmar looked around at her squad.

"Alright people, stay close, watch your vectors and don't hit any rocks."

"Firing solution acquired" Resno spluttered out, trying to keep track of everything.

Quinn pulled himself back to his full height, giving him a clean view of the DRADIS screens, completely covered in red dots. "All defensive batteries, open fire."

Inside the asteroid belt the skies were lit up as the Neptune threw a volley of fire at the incoming raiders. They ducked and weaved but most were destroyed by the flak. Those that made it through were cut down by the Vipers.

"Razorclaw, watch your six" said Valmar, as she ducked and weaved between fire from Neptune and asteroids came across her path. Below her, a raider was on the tail of a Viper. She levelled up her ship, put it into a spin at full burn and dived straight at the raider, guns blazing. The Raider stood no chance, and exploded in a fireball.

"Thanks Misfire" Razorclaw said to Valmar - her callsign - and carried on after two more raiders.

In CIC Bragen had stepped forward to look at the monitors. "Status of civilian ships?"

Resno looked up. "Sir, the DeepFreeze, the Long Haul and Colonial Heavy 525 have all jumped. The tanker is almost ready to go."

"Just a few more seconds..."

Janley's screen lit up. "Sir, incoming missiles from the Basestars, 30- no, 40 missiles."

"Have batteries alpha through delta switch to defensive fire and set triple A to three second intervals."

Quinn looked at Bragen, surprised. Bragen didn't even know he'd given the order. Resno looked at Bragen, then to Quinn. "Do it!" yelled Quinn.

Outside the defensive batteries changed their position and fired again, taking out many of the incoming missiles. A few got through, impacting on Neptune's rugged new skin.

Valmar watched as a raider took out two Vipers in a single straffing run. "Frak it guys, keep your eyes peeled."

At the refinery the Tylium tanker ripped its fuel lines away and jumped, blowing a few panels off the berth it was docked at. A fire broke out along the tier and a couple of tylium tanks exploded, throwing the station off its axis slightly. Retro rockets screamed to get itself back into position.

Resno saw it on DRADIS. "Sir, all civilian ships have jumped."

Quinn turned to Janley. "Bring 'em home."

Janley contacted the Vipers. "All wings Neptune, return to the flight pods immediately. We're leaving."

Quinn turned back to Resno. "Resno, time the FTL with the activation signal."

"Aye sir."

Bragen looked at Quinn. "What activation signal?"

In the belt Valmar finished off one last raider then turned back, heading for the port flight pod. As she touched down she raised her coms. "That's it, we're all on board. Get us moving!"

Janley looked up at Quinn. "All Vipers aboard."

Quinn released his grip on the combat table he didn't even know he was grabbing. "Jump. Resno, send the signal."

Outside, the weapons fire from Neptune died, just as a massive volley of missiles hurtled towards her. In an instant, the space around her rippled and she jumped away. A second later, the Tylium refinery exploded with the brilliance of a supernova, a nuclear shockwave spreading outwards, claiming all raiders in its path. One of the Basestars jumped away, but other two were torn apart.

- I - I - I -

Four ships drifted slowly in the heavens, a bright star shone in the distance. An instant later the large hulk of a Battlestar appeared above them.

In CIC, Quinn was looking at the reports. Three Vipers lost, another six people killed when missiles hit the ship. The Tylium tanker was 100% full and Neptune, with all of her fuel tanks, held 85%. By flooding the Viper tanks in the flight pods to capacity, Neptune could drain the Tylium tanker and be at damn near capacity. Then maybe even cut the Tylium tanker loose.

Quinn stopped and thought for a moment, and decided that would make for the beginnings of a good plan.

Valmar entered. "They're ready."

- I - I - I -

Down in the starboard hanger, most of the crew were assembled. Bragen, Lesterson, Kebble, Janley and Resno all stood side by side. Valmar and Quinn entered, and everyone saluted.

"As you were." Everyone stood at ease.

Quinn thought for a moment, then chose his words. "I can't give you the words you want to hear. I can't mend the pain we're feeling, or bring back the ones we've lost. But I do know, here and now, that the people on this ship have a job to do. We're just one warship, but we're gonna give them one hell of a war. We might not survive. We might not win. But we'll go in, guns blazing, and make sure the twelve colonies of man are not forgotten."

Quinn stepped up to the main group. "As you know, there aren't many officers on this ship, so we have to improvise. I am hearby promoting Bragen to be my EXO. Valmar will be the CAG. Other assignments will be distributed as needed."

"What about you?" Valmar said.

Quinn was confused. "Sorry... what?"

"Sir, you're now in charge of this Battlestar, you shouldn't really hold the rank of colonel."

Bragen stepped forward and present Quinn with a small black box, inside which contained two shoulder pins with the rank of Commander. Quinn smiled, as Bragen saluted.

Everyone on the flight deck cheered. Quinn was speechless, but he didn't really want to say anymore.

- I - I - I -

In his cabin, Quinn was applying his new pins to his uniform. He was staring at himself in the mirror for a long time, before he realised someone was standing in the door.

"Didn't mean to startle you" said Bragen, slowly entering.

"Not at all." Quinn directed him to a chair, and they both sat. Quinn poured them both a drink.

Quinn began "I meant everything I said down on the flight deck. I don't have a plan for us. I don't know how things are gonna turn out. But I do know people when I meet them, and I know you're gonna be fine as an EXO."

"Thank you. I'll try not to let you down."

Quinn leaned back. "And I hear you've had experience in the military?"

Bragen allowed himself a small smile. "Yes sir, although it wouldn't be much help to you. I can't remember much of it. An incident on Leonis a few years ago made me lose my memory of certain events."

"That's unfortunate. Maybe one day you'll be able to remember what you've lost."

Bragen shrugged. "Maybe I don't want to. So what will you miss most? What do you want at the end of all this, when all this is over?"

"I wanna swim in the waters of Aquaria again. You?"

"I just want a new set of sunglasses."

Quinn laughed and raised his glass. "To the Neptune."

They clinked their glasses together and drank. Bragen put his glass down and stood up, heading for the door. "I'd better get back to work, Commander. Can't have the only officers on board getting drunk on the last bottle of Libran whisky in the universe."

Quinn smiled. "Call me Ben. It's good to have you on board, Colonel Bragen."

Bragen smiled back. "Call me Daniel."

_**END OF DAY ONE**_


	2. DAY TWO

**NEPTUNE'S ****LEGACY**

_**DAY TWO – THE END OF INNOCENCE**_

"Launch the frakking Vipers!"

"Sir, main systems are down. Launch tubes are inoperable. Frak it, sir we just lost communications with the port flight deck."

An alarm Klaxon blared out as men ran around in a panic. The room was shaking as impact after impact pounded the hull outside. Jackson knew she wouldn't last long under this onslaught. Twelve nuclear strikes alone on the starboard flight pod. He dreaded to think what was left of it. Radiation alarms were continuing to spike as wave after wave of radiation permeated through the hull and into the corridors, taking down men and women as they ran to or from their stations.

"Jackson, take a detachment down to the port flight pod and help get those birds out of the tubes. Get out and push if you have to."

"Aye sir." Jackson pointed to two men as he left the room, who instantly followed him out of the rotating glass doors of CIC. He glanced back at Commander Archard who hadn't taken his eyes off the DRADIS screens since the attacks began. He was worried that he wouldn't see him again. Archard's first command since becoming a Commander would likely be his last. Jackson didn't like that thought but it was painfully obvious the Battlestar Poseidon wouldn't be able to stand up to the three enemy targets bearing down it without defensive batteries and viper support for cover.

Jackson and the others turned a corner into another corridor as three quick explosions ripped through a distant part of the ship. Suddenly the lighting shut down and the world was plunged into darkness. Jackson called for the others to stay close to each other and they tried to carry on.

Jackson saw a light at the end of the corridor, with relief. He then realised the light was a fireball tearing through the corridor towards him, and dived out of the way. The two men behind him were too slow, and were incinerated by the blast.

Jackson hurried along the corridor, hoping not to trip over anyone or anything in his path. He was getting too old for this he thought to himself. After a while he realised something was wrong. Missing. The pounding had stopped.

The ship was no longer under attack.

Jackson cleared an intersection and looked into a distant corridor and took a step forward. He tripped on something soft but solid and fell flat on the floor. Picking himself up, he saw the body he had just tripped over, and the half dozen others that lay around him.

He heard a noise and looked back, seeing another light at the far end of the corridor. He tensed, and readied himself to hit the deck again. But this time he realised it wasn't fire, but artificial light. Thank the Gods!

He was about to get up when he suddenly froze. Something was wrong about the way they were being carried. It felt too stiff to be human, then again maybe they were all injured. Then he took a closer look and heard metallic grating as the people moved. One of them turned in his direction, and then he saw it.

A red light was pulsing back and forth in the darkness. After a few seconds it turned away from him again, and carried on with the rest of the party.

"Cylons!" Jackson thought to himself. "Frakking frakking Cylons! And now they were on his ship. He was determined to make sure they didn't get anywhere crucial, and if he was gonna die, he'd make sure as many of those frakking – what was the word they used to use? – toasters came with him.

He reached down in the darkness and found one of the men was a marine. He gently pulled out the pistol and slowly slithered up the way in order to avoid being detected. The Cylons hadn't seen him.

As he stepped forward he noticed movement to his left. He spun... and came face to face with himself, standing in a doorway flanked by a pair of centurions.

"Greetings brother" said the doppelganger, "I'm so glad you made it."

- I - I - I -

"What are you reading?"

Resno looked up with a start. He'd been so engrossed in his book he failed to see Commander Quinn sit down beside him.

"What? This? Oh it's just a-"

"A HisSciFi novel. I remember reading those when I was younger. What's this one about?"

Resno was embarrassed, but made sure his professionalism stayed true. "This... is about the space station that vanished above Aquaria around eighty years ago."

Quinn threw his head back, deep in thought. "I remember that one... the Elysia wasn't it?"

"Yes!" Resno said rather too eagerly. "FTL malfunction was the official story. No one ever saw it again."

"And what you're reading now is...?"

"Oh, bit of fiction surrounding what happened to the ship. They were never able to jump back, instead tried to create their own colony in space. At eight and a quarter kilometres the Elysia was certainly big enough."

"Nice. So does this one have a satisfactory ending? I remember reading heaps as a teenager and being disappointed by the- what?"

Resno slumped in his chair, and put the book to one side. "This was a recent release. Book seven of eight. Book eight came out last week but I was too slow to get it. Looks like I'll never know how it finishes. Frustrating too; I really wanted to know what lay beyond the darkness."

Quinn gave a comforting smile. "Never say never."

But Resno did have a point. Since the attacks, production of everything they knew had ended, and anything unfinished would remain unfinished. The books, magazines, tv shows and movies would be the last ever made by the colonies, until they began again.

Again. The thought scared him. Would they ever be able to properly start again? Maybe if-

The intercom system chirped, breaking his chain of thought.

"Command staff to CIC". It was Bragen's voice.

- I - I - I -

Quinn and Resno entered CIC to see Janley and Bragen at the combat table, starring at the DRADIS screens.

"Sitrep" Quinn offered.

Bragen didn't take his eyes off the screens. "We're monitoring a large object on DRADIS. Looks like she's drifting whatever it is."

"One of ours?"

"We think so." Janley checked her readings. "Sir, the alert Vipers will be there in two minutes."

"Copy that" said Bragen.

"Alert Vipers?" asked Quinn.

Bragen finally peeled his eyes off the screens. "Yeah, I figure if there's a threat out there I'd rather have Vipers than Raptors stuck out there. Besides, if it's one of ours and drifting, I want to be ready for whatever set it adrift."

"Yeah but Raptors can jump away, Vipers can't." Quinn smiled. Bragen smiled back. Bragen knew Quinn would launch Alert Vipers too. He wanted to test his EXO to make sure he was up to it. He hadn't had much experience according to what he had learnt over the last twenty four hours. Personally he wouldn't have bothered with a search and rescue but it had only been a day since the attacks so there might be survivors.

Valmar pulled her viper up alongside the shattered form of the Battlestar. Hell, she thought to herself, if she didn't know what a Battlestar looked like she wouldn't have known what the lump of twisted metal in front of her truly was. The entire forward section was gone, clear ripped away down to the bulkheads. The engineering section had also taken a pounding, and only a single sublight engine lay drifting, attached by only umbilical's to the rest of the ship. Her wingman reported the starboard flight pod was shattered beyond belief. Now, the port flight pod was in front of her. She pulled herself level, keeping her eyes on the hulk, on DRADIS, and on surrounding space. She didn't trust anything now. Her eyes made contact with the large text on the side of the hull. Even with a letter missing, she knew what it was.

"Misfire Neptune, I can confirm a visual ID. She's the Poseidon."

In CIC, Quinn heard murmurs at the back of the room. He knew many people on the ship had friends and family on other Battlestars.

"Janley, feed Valmar's gun camera into the main screens."

"Aye sir, stand by."

As Janley worked, one DRADIS screen was replaced by static, then the image of the Poseidon slowly came into view. The lower landing hanger on the once-great Mercury class ship was torn away, but the upper deck was still intact.

Bragen spoke up. "Neptune Misfire, in your assessment, can we expect survivors?"

Valmar couldn't believe the question. The ship was dead beyond belief, killed two or three times over. But then as she stared at the hull, she realised what he meant. "Misfire Neptune, roger, the port flight pod has sustained significant damage but not as serious as the rest of the ship. It's entirely possible there are pockets of air with trapped survivors in them."

- I - I - I -

In the starboard hanger, Bragen and a squad of marines in full atmos suits began boarding Raptor. Bragen, the last man in, turned and reached back for a case, which Quinn handed him.

"No heroics. Find any survivors, then get out. We'll send three other raptors in your shadow."

Bragen smiled. "We'll find them, don't worry."

"Hey... do you want to have dinner this evening?"

Bragen stopped. "Sir?"

"Well, you're my new EXO. I know nothing about you. Brash of me I know to promote you but, just offering."

"Fine" said Bragen, "my quarters, eighteen hundred hours. I'll cook us some of the best emergency supplies available."

Quinn smiled. "It's a date."

- I - I - I -

The raptor left the hanger and headed towards the remains of the Poseidon. The sun eclipsing behind her gave it a quality Bragen dreaded. He hoped he was correct in his assumption. There might be survivors. They couldn't just walk away, as he would be the same.

The raptor pilot slowed the ship and made a course correction. "Sir, bearing 370, will bring her in at one half."

Bragen nodded. "Very well, one ha-"

A flash of blue and white light erupted in their window, blinding them and the rest of the team. When the pilot was able to look out again he could see the massive hull of a ship. Approaching.

Fast.

DRADIS began screaming at them to alter course, collision alarms sounded through the tiny cabin as the pilot gripped the controls and pulled the Raptor into a high arching maneuver. Bragen watched as the raptor finally slowed and spun to face the intruder.

The FTP jump was damn lucky it wasn't closer or worse, right on top of them. Two ships co-existing in the same space-time co-ordinates would leave a pretty nasty stain. The sickening feeling Bragen had in his stomach and the accompanying thought of the troll guarding the bridge from THAT childhood story all those years ago was suddenly alleviated when he recognized the design of the ship.

It was a friendly.

- I - I - I -

In CIC Quinn was speaking to Janley. "So the raptor found nothing?"

"Not exactly nothing sir. Wreckage of several dozen Cylon raiders and maybe a handful of Vipers. Old Vipers. We're talking MKII here."

Quinn turned away. "Damn. Hopefully they didn't lose many. MKII's huh? Adama must've salvaged them from his museum. And no sign of the Galactica herself?"

Janley shook her head. "No sir. The place was swarming with Basestars so the raptor didn't hang around too long. But it was clear the Cylons had taken Ragnar."

Quinn thumped the combat table. "Frak! Ah well, there goes another depot we can't-"

DRADIS began screaming to the high heavens, forcing them both to look up at the screens. In an instant Quinn knew what to do.

"Action stations! Set condition one throughout the ship! Target triple A on the intruder and get those alert vipers on the target, now!"

Janley checked her console. "Sir, I'm receiving colonial transponder codes, identification says she's a passenger liner."

Quinn wasn't taking any chances. "Check and triple check. Get the firing solution anyway." Resno nodded.

Janley spoke up. "Sir, recognition signals confirmed. We're receiving audio from the liner."

Quinn, still skeptical, backed down. "Let's hear it."

The speaker came alive as the sounds of crying was heard in the background. "This is Captain Wills of the liner Aegean, thank FRAK we found you!"

"Aegean, this is Neptune actual, Commander Quinn speaking. What's your status?"

"We were bound for Aquaria out of Aerilon when the attacks started. We were traveling with a handful of other ships but we got separated. Have you heard anything from the Pangaea? Maybe the Scylla?"

"Sorry Captain, no, only the small handful of ships behind us is all we've found. How many in your group?"

"We were a pack of nineteen, but we lost three when Cylons jumped right in the middle of us, then we jumped away and became separated from the others."

Quinn eyed Janley. She shrugged. Quinn knew food and water was at a premium, and now they had a whole new batch of humans to look after. The cold storage vessel had provided them with a handy boost in supplies but he knew it wouldn't last forever.

"Aegean, we will protect you. Please transfer your details to CIC and advise if you have any crucial requirements, medical or otherwise."

"Oh THANK YOU, thank you, Commander. It's not true what they say about the military-"

Janley cut the link then looked apologetic at Quinn, but he only laughed. Rumours about military overspending and "priority" within certain colonies always came to the surface every now and then. Aquaria often followed Aerilon's notion of a class struggle.

_Was_ he corrected himself. Aquaria _was_ like that.

Janley looked at Quinn thoughtfully. "Isn't the Aegean a Quorum ship?"

"Yes it is" he replied. "Quorum delegates use it between the colonies. Waste of tax payer money if you ask me."

- I - I - I -

Three loud thumps echoed down the corridor. Sonic detectors confirmed the sound had carried through to the next chamber, indicating there was still an atmosphere of sorts. Bragen cycled the hatch and pulled it open.

A slight change in pressure caused some air to escape. Bragen hurried the other three members of the team through and shut the hatch behind them. Around them, the hanger was a mess. Bodies of knuckle draggers and pilots lay side by side on the deck. A Raptor lay on its side after what Bragen assumed a shockwave or impact had tipped it open.

Phillip, the med-tech, and the two marines moved into the hanger, checking all bodies as they went.

"Decompression" Phillip said. "Must've had a breach."

"Yeah but it looks like it got sealed." One of the marines replied. Jansen? Hansen? Bragen couldn't remember his name. "I'm getting atmos in here."

Bragen bumped a shelf, causing a spanner to float away yet slowly drift downwards.

"Looks like some of the gravity generators are working. Maybe 0.2 or 0.3 of normal. Phillip, what's your status?"

Phillip stood up from a dead body. "Not in here."

"Alright let's move out. This ship should have a bulkhead defence system. Seals them up tight. Phillip, take a Marine and head forward, we'll head aft."

The four men moved into an adjoining corridor and split up.

- I - I - I -

Quinn rounded the corner to his quarters, deeply engrossed in a report and was about to put his hand out when he suddenly realised two armed guards were standing at his door.

"I didn't order you guys here."

One of the guards looked at him. "Sorry sir, Ambassador Kemel's orders."

"Who?"

Quinn entered his quarters to find a tall man – much taller than himself – seated on his couch drinking from a bottle of scotch. His scotch by the looks of it.

"Commander Quinn, so nice of you to stop by" the man said, standing and extending a hand.

"Well it is my quarters" Quinn replied, shaking his hand.

Kemel laughed. "I'm sorry Commander, things are running faster than I expected. I am currently drafting up a policy of how civilisation will function now that the Cylons are here."

"Function? I don't follow" Quinn said, sitting back down opposite Kemel. In the guest chair, he reminded himself.

"We have been faced with the most terrible of crisis since our ancestors arrived from Kobol. Our lives have been cut short except for a brave few. We must make all efforts to ensure humanity continues, in whatever form it takes. That is why I have decided to make a deal with our adversaries in a bid to allow us our freedom."

"You're not serious... peace with the Cylons?" Quinn couldn't believe what he was hearing. He half had a thought about getting Kemel's mental state looked at.

"Not peace as such. More along the lines of a non-aggression pact. We don't bother them, they don't bother us. We take the Neptune and whoever is left and leave, find a new home out there somewhere. They signed an armistice once, they might-"

"Adar offered a complete and unconditional surrender and yet the bombs kept falling. Why do you think a small handful of survivors would get any different treatment?" Quinn was trying to be as restrained as possible. He knew the guards outside were to protect the Ambassador, regardless of who would attack him.

Kemel held up his arms. "Please please, I'm well aware of what the Cylons did; I watched as the fields and pastures of Aerilon burned to a cinder, I saw with my own eyes the Pantheon collapse and fall, I heard the screams of thousands as I was thrown aboard my transport. But we have to understand we did this to ourselves. We created the Cylons, we are responsible for their actions, and hopefully they realise the folly of their ways."

Quinn could see no argument would sway this man. He stood up, as slowly as possible as to not be rude. "I have to get to CIC. I only came back here for five minutes to read this report, but clearly I need my own space." He turned, and saw a pile of boxes against a far wall.

"Sorry about that" Kemel said, standing beside him. "I needed the room. Now hopefully we can meet up again soon, I have a few changes I need to make. Your current EXO doesn't have the training for his position, but thankfully someone more qualified survived on my ship."

Quinn walked for the exit, deciding not to make eye contact with Kemel again. "I look forward to meeting him."

- I - I - I -

Quinn entered CIC at pace, almost knocking over a cadet. "Janley, I want all information you have on Ambassador Kemel and the crew manifest of the Aegean."

"Anything in particular I should be looking for?" She already had a folder opened on the combat table, flipping through the paperwork.

"Specifically... how many soldiers does Kemel have." Quinn didn't want to say it like that but it blurted out. Janley stopped for a second, then carried on.

"He has around thirty guards, most of which have transferred to the Neptune." Janley turned a page, held it up and started reading the sheet marked Dossier. "Oh that's right... I remember Kemel now. Allow me to paraphrase... Ambassador Kemel is the Quorum Delegate for Aerilon. He's known for his fanatical views and has an ego the size of a Battlestar. There's a warning in here about not to mention the Cylon war with him. He has... different views."

"Great... the last thing I want is to have a war on two-"

"Sir!"

Quinn turned. A man standing in wearing a very polished uniform was standing in the doorway.

"Colonel Jaz Nelson reporting for duty, sir" and promptly saluted.

This time, Quinn couldn't hide what he was feeling.

"Oh frak me."

- I - I - I -

Bragen rounded another corner and found a group of bodies on the floor. "More dead. This isn't looking good... er..."

The man beside him smiled. "Benson sir."

"Thanks."

Just as he turned back to the corridor he almost shrieked when an arm came out of the darkness and grabbed him.

"Thank you, thank the Lords of Kobol you're here!" the man on the other end shouted. Bragen pulled the man into the light, and found he was an old officer.

"It's ok you're safe now. Are you injured?" Bragen asked, eying the man up and down.

"No, I'm fine, I missed most of the action. Truth be told I went and hid, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry-"

"Don't worry, we'll get you to safety. There's a Battlestar docked outside. We're only a few minutes from the hanger."

As Bragen turned he saw Benson listening to his headset inside his helmet.

"Copy that. Sir, team two reports they've found eight survivors and are heading back to the raptor now."

"Good, tell them to proceed and to evac when ready. We'll grab the next one."

They began moving along the corridor. "My name is Jackson by the way, I was the third officer aboard the Poseidon. Have we met, your voice is awfully familiar."

"Doubt it. I'm Colonel Bragen, this is Private Johansen."

"Benson."

"Sorry."

- I - I - I -

"I disagree" said Quinn, standing with his arms folded. "We still have time."

"Commander, the Poseidon is a dead ship. All you'll find over there are corpses. We should jump before the Cylons arrive" replied Nelson, not wanting to back down.

"We still have men over there, I'm not gonna recall them until they've done a full sweep."

"This is going nowhere. Ambassador Kemel thinks that-"

"Ah so that's it" Quinn turned and walked away from Nelson. "You're doing whatever Kemel says, is that right?"

"Ambassador Kemel is the senior surviving official of the Quorum. With none of the two hundred and fifty three viable candidates who could take over the presidency present aboard this ship, Kemel has seniority on this ship."

"And what am I?" Quinn bellowed. "The Colonial Military and the Quorum of Twelve are entirely different entities. In a time of war I have command over a Battlestar, and the civilian government controls the civilian ships. Why not go annoy them...?"

Quinn didn't mean that last bit to come out but it had. Nelson eyed him up sharply.

"Sir, I respect your authority however it is my understanding I am only following the laws of Colonial Military under Regulation 627, dated-"

"Wait... what regulation? I've never heard of a Regulation 627 before." He eyed Janley, who got the hint and began looking through various reports.

"It was passed three months ago. It stated the quorum would control tactical decisions during a time of war or otherwise crisis situation. The Colonial Military are, after all, here to serve the people."

Quinn didn't say anything more, instead backed over to Resno who had come in part way through the argument. Quinn handed him the crew manifest from the Aegean. He leaned in close.

"Look through this, find the current location of each and give that info to our marine corp." Quinn said quietly.

"What are their instructions sir?" Resno said, matching Quinn's volume.

Quinn smiled. "Sterilise them."

- I - I - I -

Bragen rounded another corner and found they'd finally managed to make it back into the hanger. The other two soon joined him.

"Benson, get in that Raptor there and see if you can find a dead pilot who's about the same size as our Mr Jackson here."

"Yes sir" and with that he bounced into the raptor on its side.

"Easy with that gravity mister." Bragen turned and looked back at Jackson. Old, bags under the eyes, seen quite a few years Bragen thought.

Jackson looked back at Bragen and froze. "Don't worry, we'll get you a suit soon. Beyond here it's all vacuum but don't worry, we'll be out of here... what's the matter? Looks like you've seen a ghost."

Jackson's whole emotion changed. "Daniel..." He didn't say the name nicely.

"Yeah... wait, I didn't tell you my first-"

A metal pipe swung slowly in the low gravity and connected with Bragen's shoudler, forcing him to retreat. Bragen rounded on Jackson, wondering what he had done to suddenly provoke this response. His right hand removed the pistol from its holster, but another blow knocked it clean away into the wreckage of a nearby Viper.

"Do we have a problem?"

"Just one, Daniel... last time I saw you, I had just finished killing you"

- I - I - I -

"Ambassador on deck!" yelled one of the guards as Kemel walked calmly into CIC. Quinn and Nelson were on opposite sides of the combat table. The air was still not clear.

"Hello Colonel, Commander. I trust everything is going smoothly."

"No sir they are not" Quinn said, not taking his eyes off Nelson. "Mr Nelson here was just informing me of Regulation 627."

Kemel smiled. "I'm sorry, an unfortunate time but we must take measures to-"

"Survive, yes I know," Quinn said, still trying to be cordial. _Gods I hate ambassadors_ he thought. He stepped up to Kemel, who sadly for Quinn was over half a foot higher than he was. "Unfortunately on this ship that Regulation will not be followed as there is no record of it ever reaching this ship, nor being actioned by the Colonial Military."

Kemel hardly flinched. "Oh? That's no problem, I have a full list of Quorum amendments and propositions for the last three months. I'll have them sent-"

"No." Quinn said.

"I'm sorry?"

"The answer is no. Private, please escort the Ambassador from CIC." Quinn turned his back on Kemel and walked back to the table.

A marine standing near the door moved forward towards the Ambassador, but he didn't move.

"Mr Quinn, clearly you're new at this. I understand you've been reluctant to take on the role as Commander. That is no longer your concern. I am hereby promoting Colonel Nelson to Commander and you are relieved of command."

"Again, no. This ship does not recognise your authority, and without the other eleven delegates to convene, I'm afraid you-"

"Does not recognise my authority? WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" The veins were bulging on Kemel's neck, and his face had gone red with anger.

Finally Quinn thought, some reaction at last. "Sorry Ambassador, I think you should leave now."

Two of Kemel's guards sprang forward and raised their rifles at Quinn. Instantly marines loyal to Quinn raised their own rifles at the intruders. Nelson pulled his own sidearm and raised it at Quinn, while Resno grabbed his weapon and put it to Nelson's head.

Quinn didn't take his eyes off Kemel, who was fuming.

"I have never been treated like this before. When this day is over, you will be relegated to bathroom duties, providing I haven't had you spaced."

Janley spotted something in the report she was reading. "Ambassador, it would be advisable to stand down at this time."

"Who the frak are you. I didn't give you permission to speak. I don't stand down. I _never_ stand down. You got that?" Kemel looked like he would leap across the room and rip her head off if he was able to do so.

"Why, Janley?" Quinn asked. He hoped she'd found something useful.

"Ambassador, Commander, I have found that eighty two days ago the Quorum voted on Regulation 627, however the vote was ten to two in favour of the motion."

"Yes, a binding seventy five percent majority" said Kemel, smiling in victory. Quinn smiled too. He could see where this was heading.

"Checkmate Neptune, this is Raptor 1152 requesting docking clearance." Resno heard the call but didn't take his gun off Nelson.

"Checkmate Neptune, do you copy? Hello? Anyone awake over there?"

"Yes Ambassador" continued Janley, who, Quinn thought, was doing a great job composing herself. "However the Regulation was tabled by the Aerilon representative at a Federal level. As ratified by the Quorum of Twelve roughly seventeen years ago, all laws affecting the Articles of Colonisation must have an eleven vote majority. The vote had been reset for a new reading in two months time."

Kemel's face shrank. She was right.

"Mr Nelson... I authorise you to use Article Ten of Colonial Military code-"

"Not valid here" Quinn countered. "I'm still in sound mind and body." He smiled. Kemel took a step back, as if he was going to fall over.

After an uneasy silence, one of the two marines targeting Quinn lowered his weapon and took a step back. To his surprise, Nelson swung his pistol round at the remaining marine loyal to Kemel.

"Drop it soldier" he said. The marine looked at Kemel, who was quivering in shock, and lowered his rifle. Resno put his gun away and went back to his console.

"Raptor 1152 Neptune, roger, cleared for landing port flight pod."

"Finally, someone awake over there. Roger, wheels down in two minutes, have twelve souls on board."

A few cheers went up in the room but the atmosphere was still tense.

"Lower your weapons, all of you" Quinn said, seeing Kemel was no longer a threat. The two marines loyal to Kemel were marched out, just as Grendel arrived with a new squad of marines. "Sir, all traitors have been rounded up. What do you want me to do with them.

Quinn eyed Kemel, who still hadn't moved. "Disarm them and send them back to the Aegean."

Grendel nodded and left. Kemel turned slowly to face Janley, his face all drained of emotion.

"You... you sound like you're one of us..."

"That's correct Ambassador, I was born on Aerilon, at Gaoth Public Hospital sir." Quinn smiled again. If he were Janley he'd probably tell the defeated Ambassador to go frak himself.

"You would've... would've made for a good politician."

"Please don't insult my staff Ambassador, now if you'll accompany these marines, they'll make sure you find a nice place to rest. Frak it, you can have my quarters for a few hours, until your guest quarters are ready. And for frak's sake keep your hands off my scotch!"

Resno looked up.

"I said scotch."

- I - I - I -

Valmar pulled her viper round as the Raptor slowly disappeared into the remains of the flight pod. She noted which hatch they would attempt to breach, then took up her position with the other Vipers in the squadron. In the event of a sudden Cylon arrival, they would have to hold off the raiders until the Raptor could get away.

In the distance, she could see the large hulk of the Neptune standing guard over the quintet of smaller vessels. She was wondering what was going on over there. CIC had been awfully quiet for the past half hour. The tiny fleet was a 'cute' sight she thought, yet sad as it reminded her of what she was looking at – the last humans.

She spun her Viper around, not wishing to be reminded of such a fact. She pulled alongside the flight pod, in line with the launch tubes. Peering into the darkness as she flew along, she thought of how many may have been lost in the attack. She started thinking of old friends and colleagues she used to serve with on other Battlestars when, by coincidence, she slowed to one-eighth and started pinging the tubes.

A flash of light flared at the other end.

Valmar pulled her Viper up and spun it round, peering into the darkness. Emergency lighting batteries had long since faded away; standards of twelve hours clearly not long enough. There was damage on the edge of the tube.

Valmar peered into the darkness. She was considering reporting in, but wanted to know what to report in with.

"Razorclaw Misfire, you copy?"

Another viper quickly pulled up alongside her. "Misfire, roger. What you found sir?"

"Not sure" she began, "we may have a target... I'm going in."

"Misfire, you serious? We don't normally fly _into_ a launch tube"

Valmar knew it was a risky move. Ejecting at high velocity from a launch tube is all controlled and the Viper is attached to the deck until the very last second, but heading into it would mean navigating a hundred and twenty feet of a narrow corridor only slightly wider than the viper itself, and in this case, in the dark.

Valmar decided she had thought enough. She thrustered forward and disappeared into the tube.

- I - I - I -

Quinn was standing at the combat table, staring blankly back at the rest of CIC. The thoughts and images of what had just happened before him a few minutes ago still racing through his mind.

"You alright sir?" said Resno, handing him another report.

"Yeah… yeah I'll be alright. Really didn't want it to come to that. Thank you for defending me."

"You're my commanding officer sir. I can't stand back when something like that is happening."

"Razorclaw Neptune, repeat your last..."

Quinn turned at the sound of Janley's voice.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Razorclaw Neptune, wait one. Sir, Razorclaw is reporting Misfire has picked up an echo inside a launch tube and is… going in to investigate."

"What the frak… put him on speakers"

"Razorclaw this is Neptune actual, repeat your last, in detail."

"Neptune Razorclaw, Misfire has entered launch tube 14p. She said she saw something and wanted to investigate. Went inside before I could stop her sir. Should I pursue?"

Quinn shook his head despite knowing Razorclaw would never see him.

"No, hold at thirty, maintain watch. Janley, can you raise Misfire?"

"Negative sir, too much radiation on the hull of the Poseidon to penetrate that far in."

"Very well, Razorclaw, point to point transmissions only. Stay fixed on the opening in case we have to relay any info."

"Copy that" he said.

Janley looked at Quinn. "What the devil is she playing at...?"

- I - I - I -

Bragen pulled back, not sure what to make of this old man who was apparently starting to talk in riddles.

"Last time I looked I was still breathing, friend. Sure you're not mistaking me for somebody else?"

Jackson stepped up closer, peering at his face like he was his fish in an aquarium. "No you're the same Daniel I remember all right. That spikey hair... those tiny blue eyes... that annoying smile"

Bragen was at a loss and had no idea what he was on about. Out of the corner of his eye, Benson had emerged from the fallen Raptor and pulled his sidearm, aiming it at Jackson.

"Look Jackson-"

"My name is Cavil. Don't even try to reason with me. I wanted to make sure you were wiped out of existence but clearly I missed one."

"One?" Bragen was confused, and was hoping Benson would take his shot soon. "Look, I don't-"

A volley of machine gun fire rang out, and Bragen fell back in surprise, the low gravity making for uncomfortable landing. He looked up to see the large blood stain on the hanger wall and near-decapitated corpse of Benson dangling over the Raptor. He noticed movement to his right, and saw half a dozen Cylon Centurions entering the hanger.

_Frak_ thought Bragen.

- I - I - I -

Valmar started to think it was a very bad idea. She was part of the way along now, and according to her readings near the hanger. It was really dark. She had dimmed the lights in her cockpit and visor, and turned the displays down as much as possibly, but the light from the opening over a hundred feet behind her was too weak to make a difference.

She pulled up and stopped. She needed light. She wanted to make sure she wasn't gonna smash into the blast shield or worse, another Viper.

Then she smiled to herself. It was so simple.

She gripped the trigger of her joystick, turned the viper fifteen degrees to starboard and opened fire.

The shells tore into the side of the tube, breaking through cables and struts. The sparks from the impacts and the flash from the gun nozzle briefly illuminated the tube. Valmar stared ahead and saw what she almost hit.

A badly damaged Cylon raider was stuck from falling debris within the launch tube and was trying to reverse. One of its wings had been sheared off and the other had become wedged in a tangle of lose cables.

_Little frakker_ Valmar thought. _Must've been trying to sneak up into the hanger and kill knuckledraggers at point-blank range._

The Raider sensed Valmar was behind it and lurched the other way, finally ripping the cables. It tried to flip over, breaking the tip of its remaining wing and thrusting all it could. In a few seconds, it would be facing her.

"Oh frak me" Valmar said.

- I - I - I -

Bragen moved to stand back until he had nowhere to go. The Centurions had lined up in front of him like a firing squad. Cavil was behind them.

"Any last words Daniel?" Cavil said, smiling with over confidence. "You Sevens were such a sensitive bunch. Wouldn't put it past you to break down and cry about now."

"Jackson – Cavil – whatever your name is, I think you should put your mental problems away for the time being, don't you?" Bragen thought Cavil's cavalier actions were amazing, considering what was happening around him. Then again, if he really was insane...

"You don't understand do you?" Cavil said, and slowly stepped through the line of Centurions. It dawned on Bragen what he was seeing.

"You're a conspirator?"

"I'm a Cylon." Cavil said.

"Oh" he said. "Didn't see that one coming."

"And so are you."

Bragen stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't believe it. How could he. He had memories of growing up, of his family, of his beautiful daughter. They couldn't be lies. They couldn't be.

But deep down, in the far reaches of his brain, somehow, someway, he knew it to be the truth.

"I've had enough of this little talk Daniel. Unlike you I was never a family man. I get bored easily. Centurions, kill him."

Cavil stepped out of the line and turned away. After a second, he spun round, staring at the metallic soldiers.

None of them had fired, or even raised their weapon against Bragen.

"What the frak is this...?" he said, examining the nearest centurion.

Bragen saw the opportunity and took a slow step back towards a half open hatch, but bumped a table with equipment on it, and they fell off with a crash. Cavil turned, and pulled out the pistol he stole from the dead marine earlier.

"No matter... I guess I'll just have to finish the job myself" said Cavil, raising the pistol at Bragen's head.

A blast of fire and metallic debris exploded through a Viper launch door to Bragen's left, and he hurtled himself to the floor, grabbing the landing strut of a smashed Viper. The launch door had broken free from the hinges and crushed five of the centurions standing in a row.

Through the launch tube, the nosecone of Valmar's Viper emerged.

"Knock knock" said Valmar, quickly surveying the scene.

The remaining Centurion transformed its right arm into a machine gun, but Valmar was quicker, and tore through it with her kinetic energy weapons.

Bragen watched as the air was sucked out through the launch tube. Cavil was holding onto a door but his grip was loosening, and finally he let go.

Valmar watched as Cavil was pulled through the opening and slammed into her cockpit window, face first, with a skull-crunching crack. His velocity forced him to continue along the launch tube and out into space.

"Oh frak" said Valmar, "I ran over an old man."

The air was finally dying out and Bragen struggled to his feet.

"Nice timing" he said.

Before Valmar could reply, she spotted an access door being split open, and a dozen or so centurions emerged, allowing more air from the rest of the ship to flood into the hanger and race out of the launch tube.

Valmar powered up and flew right into the hanger, turned and fired at the oncoming centurions before they could fire. She took down seven of them before a stray shot hit a fuel line at the rear of the hanger, and exploded.

A cascading explosion began to rip deck plating upwards, throwing the centurions off their feet and into the fire.

"Time to leave Colonel!" said Valmar, and spun round to face the open launch tube. "Climb on."

Bragen took a running leap and with the low gravity it made it easy to make it onto the nosecone.

"You gonna open the canopy?" he said, sitting right in front of her. To their right, the explosions were getting nearer.

"No time" said Valmar, beginning to thrust forward. "Just hang on, and for frak's sake don't put your fingers in my RCS ports!"

- I - I - I -

Outside the ship, Razorclaw waited patiently. Suddenly alarms began going off, and his headset buzzed.

"All wings Neptune, clear Poseidon air space, right now!" It was Janley. Something had happened. He saw the two remaining raptors inside make a hasty retreat out the forward opening of the flight pod.

"Razorclaw Misfire, time to leave, get your ass out here now!"

Razorclaw thrusted forward to see if he could see into tube 14p when suddenly Valmar's Viper blasted out in front of him.

"All vipers, break break break, explosion imminent!" yelled Valmar as her Viper tore away from the dying Battlestar at speed.

Razorclaw followed her, but noticed something odd about her Viper – someone in a flight suit was holding onto the nosecone.

Valmar spun her Viper in a high arc, making sure the gee-forces favoured Bragen and not have him tumble off into space. Bragen was surprisingly calm throughout the whole experience. He looked back at the Poseidon and saw explosions appearing through the bottom of the flight pod. Flashes of light were visible through launch tubes as the remains of the once great Battlestar were consumed by fire.

Something caught his attention to his left. One of the Raptors had pulled up alongside the Viper and opened their port-side door.

"Need a lift, sir?" said the suited marine inside.

Bragen peeled one hand away from the Viper as Valmar got closer to the Raptor, and the marine managed to hook a line on him and pull him in.

Once free, Valmar saluted her EXO and blasted away as max thrust to join her fellow Viper pilots, who had started to land in their allocated flight pods.

- I - I - I -

Valmar walked at pace along the hanger deck to where the raptors were slowly emptying their crews. Bragen emerged a little shaken but on his feet, and made the small jump to the deck. He flinched and squeezed his shoulder blades together in pain.

"Everything alright sir?" said Valmar, putting an arm on his shoulder.

"Yeah" he said, "but I think I did something to my back. Hurts like a mother fraker."

"It's OK, sir, I hear we have a proper medic on board now from this new civilian ship we've taken under our wing."

"Good, think I need it-"

"What the frak is this?"

Valmar, Bragen and almost everyone on the hanger deck turned at the sound of the shouting.

Lesterson was standing in front of a Viper at the far end, looking at the nose cone.

"That's my Viper" said Valmar. "I think you dented it."

"Can't these frakkers read" continued Lesterson, "There's a sign on the wing that says 'this is not a step'. It's gonna take a while to get the dents out."

"Might wanna steer make a hasty exit sir" Valmar said.

Bragen smiled, and walked off in the opposite direction.

- I - I - I -

Quinn was walking down a corridor holding a crew manifest from the Aegean. _Now I have six ships to look after_ he thought to himself. He turned at an intersection and almost bumped into Kemel walking in the other direction.

"Sorry Ambassador, didn't see you there" Quinn said.

The Ambassador didn't flinch. He definitely wasn't his former self. His shoulders were hunched and his face devoid of all emotion.

"That's ok Commander... I... I'll try and be more careful next time."

Kemel tried to walk off, but Quinn held out a hand.

"Ambassador, please, a moment."

Both men stepped out of the flow of traffic in the corridor, and into an empty doorway.

"I know it's been a tough couple of days. I didn't want what happened in CIC to happen, believe me, I just feel the majority of humans on this ship have all trained under military jurisdiction and bringing in new leadership, especially given what's happened, would be bad for this ship."

"You don't have to explain it to me Commander. You won the argument. I'll back down, and won't hinder your command any further. I'm returning to my ship, and will look after the civilians from there."

"Regarding that, I have been thinking of how we will function under the present circumstances" said Quinn, making sure he didn't overstep his mark. He had tactically beaten Kemel in a military battle, but civilian matters were truly Kemel's domain. "As I said, this ship is military, but the civilian vessels obviously aren't. The Quorum is all but gone, we have no Presidential representative on board, and we do need leadership in that respect."

Kemel looked at Quinn sharply. "What are you getting at...?"

"I want you to become president."

Kemel was shocked. "But... but I don't-"

"Think about it Ambassador" Quinn said, putting his arm around his shoulders and leading him back into the corridor. "Civilians need a leader. You're the best person qualified-"

"I'm the only politician on board."

"That too. The point is if humanity is to step out of the darkness it needs to be in the right direction. I think you can do that. And I'll personally vouch for you. Granted the Presidential and Quorum wings of the government are entirely separate entities, but we can change that. There are less than two and a half thousand humans left. We can govern as we want to govern. Change the rules to suit what we have left."

They had reached the hatch leading to the port flight pod. Kemel was smiling again.

"I'll think it over Commander. Thank you. I'll be in touch tomorrow" he said, and turned to walk through the hatch.

As he went, Quinn spotted something sticking out of his open duffle bag.

"Ambassador, one moment."

"What is it now Commander, I really must be getting on."

_Back to your normal_ self Quinn thought. "There's something in your bag I would really like to borrow. May I?"

- I - I - I -

Resno opened the hatch and was surprised to see Quinn standing in the doorway.

"Sir! Is there a problem?"

Quinn entered as Resno shut the door. Resno had been given modest quarters for his rank, and was sharing with three other cadets, all of whom were presently absent. Quinn was looking around.

"No... no problem. We need to find you some new quarters Resno, something bigger to reflect your rank."

Resno smiled. "Thank you sir! Somewhere bigger would be good."

"Well, I can't guarantee you'd get bigger quarters but at least you'd be by yourself." Quinn crossed to a small table in the centre of the room and sat down. Resno sat beside him.

"Resno... you know what the one thing I want for my crew right now?"

Resno thought. "Hope?"

Quinn smiled. "Besides that." When Resno didn't answer in a comfortably timely manner, Quinn continued.

"I want them to be happy. The Cylons have removed all the fun and love in the galaxy and we need to enjoy whatever the Gods have left us with in order to live on properly."

Resno sat quietly, nodding along with Quinn. Quinn smiled.

"You don't know why I'm here do you."

Resno shook his head in relief. "No sir!"

Quinn allowed himself a small laugh. He liked Resno. He had lost all of his friends since the attacks and the Neptune was simply a ship of strangers.

"Resno... I bring you gift from the Gods" and threw a small book on the table. Resno's eyes lit up like they were on fire.

"You found a copy!" he yelled, snatching it up and looking at the cover.

"Ambassador Kemel had a copy. He said you could keep it. Found the ending to be a bit lame."

Quinn stood, and began to move to the door. Resno stood also, but didn't take his eyes off the book.

"Book eight... I don't believe it... thank you THANK THE GODS!" he said. He lunged forward and gave the Commander a big hug, taking Quinn by surprise. He patted Resno on the back.

"You're most welcome" he said, forcing Resno away as politely as he could. "Now I expect you on duty first thing tomorrow, so don't stay up all night reading it."

"Don't worry sir, I'll make sure this doesn't distract me. Much."

Quinn turned to leave when Resno suddenly remembered something.

"Sir, Janley is having a late supper in her quarters if you're keen to catch up. We don't mind if someone of your rank joins us."

"I'm glad you said rank instead of age Lieutenant. Thank you but no, I have a prior engagement which I'm running late for. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night sir" said Resno, and went back to the book, flipping through the first couple of pages. He didn't even notice the Commander had left the room.

- I - I - I -

"You crazy son of a bitch!"

Bragen looked up from the hardly-touched drink in his hands as he sat on the couch in his quarters. Behind him the dirty plates from the meal they had just consumed still lay on the small metal dining table near the kitchenette. One plate had more food on it than the other. Bragen had admitted to himself before the meal that he simply wasn't that hungry.

Quinn was standing over him, smiling and amazed.

"I can't believe you rode that thing like a Picon stallion while the ship burned around you" he said, taking another swig of his scotch.

"Believe me, I'd gladly trade places" Bragen said, looking at his drink again.

"You should've seen Lesterson's face when he got Valmar's Viper back" Quinn said, enjoying the moment. "I hear he was quite pissed off."

Quinn broke into laughter. Bragen wasn't that interested.

"What kept you anyway? Thought you said you would be here by eighteen hundred hours."

"Oh, had to stop off to see Lieutenant Resno. Found something that by rights should've died but now the last copy of it in existence turned up on this ship."

Bragen froze at that last statement, echoing what he had heard from that man Cavil on the Poseidon.

"That Valmar is a great pilot" he said, trying to shift the subject yet again. "Please give her whatever commendation she deserves then double it."

"You can thank her yourself, apparently there's a supper on in Janley's quarters tonight if you wanna attend...?"

Bragen stood and walked over to the bottle, carefully pouring his drink back in. Quinn frowned behind him at the action.

"I think I'll pass, thanks. Pulled a muscle in my shoulder trying to hold onto that damn Viper. Doc says I need sleep so I'm not gonna argue."

"Suit yourself. You did a fine job today. Your team recovered eight people that would otherwise have died out there."

Bragen stared at the far wall. "Benson didn't make it."

"I know. But it's still a plus. We have to treat it like a numbers game at the moment. Sadly. Anything else you wanna report?" Quinn asked.

"Like what?"

"Valmar says some old man was in the hanger with you when she blasted the raider. You don't seem upset he died."

Bragen put his face in his hands and rubbed them. "The guy was psychologically distressed. He had a pistol in his hand and was about to kill me. Trust me... I'm glad Valmar did what she did."

Bragen sat back down on his couch.

"What happened on Leonis that caused your memory black out?"

The question caught Bragen by surprise. "Transport accident. Came in too fast at the spaceport and crashed into a pier. Twenty three people died and over a hundred injured. I have vague memories before then but not much."

"Anything you wanna share?" asked Quinn, who by now was aware the scotch was starting to affect him. He swore to himself, damning his old age for not holding his liquor like he used to.

"Not much... I used to be an artist. I could paint and maybe sculpture. I remember my mother's face. Beautiful, she was. After the crash I met Marie and we started a family. Now I have nothing."

Quinn put an arm on Bragen's shoulder, if anything to steady himself. "I'm sorry to hear that. I don't mean to bring back bad memories. Just trying to work out what kind of man you are."

"And what do you think so far?"

"You're normal. Which is better than half the people in this fleet." Quinn stood up and headed for the door, grabbing his coat on a dinning chair on the way past. His efforts to try and hide how drunk we was by walking in a straight line only came across as if he was wearing high heels. Bragen frowned and chuckled to himself.

"You know I came this close today to shooting the only politician we have on board."

"What stopped you?" Bragen asked.

"I'm trying to remember, must've dropped my gun or something." Quinn dropped some papers on the floor. _Oh frak_ he thought, _now he'll know I'm drunk_.

Bragen moved over and helped him pick up the papers. _This guy is pathetic, he only had three glasses_ Bragen thought.

As they picked up the reports for the day's activities, Quinn stopped and looked at Bragen.

"There's a Cylon on board."

Bragen stopped. _If I'm a Cylon, how would Quinn know?_ He remembered Lambert the previous day was discovered and shot dead in the space of a minute.

"Really?"

"Yeah... but this one's different. He's human. I mean, he looks human. And he wants to help. They look like us, Daniel. We need to be on our toes. Simon says there are twelve Cylon models but can only recognise seven of them. The other five aren't known to him. I have likenesses of the seven we know, so I'll give them to you tomorrow."

"OK... I look forward to seeing them." Bragen stood with Quinn, having collected all the papers. Bragen thought to himself a great deal, and wondered if he would recognise any of the seven, or if he was one himself and Quinn actually had a squad of marines outside at this very moment to gun him down.

"Ah well... goodnight then."

Quinn left and shut the door behind him before Bragen knew he had left. Bragen crossed to his bed and lay down. He stared up at the ceiling, focusing on the small sprinkler outlet above his bed.

He doubted very much he would sleep tonight.

_**END OF DAY TWO**_

STORY NOTES for DAY TWO

- Valmar's trip down the launch tubes originally played a bigger role and began sooner, and featured her trying to rescue a trapped pilot in a shattered Viper. This was dropped when I decided to include a bigger story for Bragen aboard the Poseidon. The pilot Valmar would've rescued now makes an appearance in Day Four.

- The Poseidon was originally called the Rycon in reference to the classic series Battlestar of the same name.

- Quinn now has five civilian ships and around 2,500 people in total.


	3. DAY THREE

**NEPTUNE'S ****LEGACY**

_**DAY THREE – EYE OF THE STORM**_

Bragen woke up with a start. He crawled out of bed and went over to the sink. He splashed the water in his face and starred into the mirror.

Almost three days now. Three days of the same dream. His wife and daughter dead. Everyone in Loki, dead. The twelve colonies.

He went back over to his bed and lay down. The fact he had even fallen asleep had amazed him. The meeting with Cavil the day before had him thinking constantly, then sometime in the early hours he had fallen asleep.

And dreamed.

He starred up at the ceiling, thoughts of the Centurions surrounding him and their reluctance to fire. Cavil screaming at him like he knew him.

_Am I a Cylon?_

Cavil's reaction was odd. Why was he angry? Shouldn't he have tried to help?

Maybe there were two factions of Cylons. Maybe a civil war was occurring in the background. He contemplated all this, and whether he should tell this mysterious Simon he'd heard about through scuttlebutt. Was this Simon a Cylon too?

"Colonel Bragen, please report to CIC."

- I - I - I -

Bragen slowly walked out of his cabin and headed for CIC. The corridors were slightly darker than normal. He glanced at his watch; 05:30. The lighting wasn't due to mimicking the conditions on a colony world, merely to conserve power during the sleeping hours. Bragen was also trying to get used to the time zone. Neptune used AST – Aquarian Standard Time, which ran at 26-hour days. He was still working off Leonis time, which was only 19 hours long. He needed less sleep, which played havoc with his roster.

Bragen retrieved a mug of coffee before entering CIC to find Resno standing at the combat table, yawning.

"You're up early?" Bragen asked. Resno jumped and dropped his comic book. Bragen put his hand on his back. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

Resno picked up his book. "It's OK. I just drifted off there for a second. I mean, to say, I'd still be on alert if anything-"

"Relax, I'm not gonna slap you. Anything happening?" He took a sip of his coffee and burnt his lip. "Frak!"

"The Commander wanted me here for a meeting" said Resno.

"And me."

The men turned and saw Janley enter, still slightly hung over from the dinner party the night before. Quinn entered behind her.

"Ah, you're all here, good" he said. "Sorry to get you up so early but we have a busy day ahead."

"Great, what are we gonna screw up today?" asked Bragen, touching his burnt lip with his finger.

"Oh by the end of today things are gonna be different. Up until now we've been flying under the DRADIS of the Cylons, but in the next few hours we're really gonna shake things up."

"So what we doing?" asked an intrigued Resno.

Quinn smiled. "Cylon hunting."

- I - I - I -

Six Basestars and several dozen raiders floated serenely in space, in orbit near Caprica. A resurrection ship drifted some distance behind them, flanked by two additional Basestars.

Inside, a Cavil wearing a navy blue jumper was standing over a resurrection tank, watching one of his brothers wake up. The one in the tank wasn't happy.

"I don't know how he survived but he did" said the second Cavil as he climbed out of the tank.

"A seven?" replied the first. "It can't be possible."

"I saw him with my own eyes. The Centurions are still programmed to defend him, which means the Hybrids are too. Something I hope to amend very shortly."

The second Cavil grabbed a towel and began wiping the gelatinous muck off his body. He took a step forward and stopped, rolling his foot on his ankle in a clockwise motion.

"Another bad Achilles. Why do I always seem to get the reject bodies each time I resurrect?" he said, pulling on black trousers and dark red shirt, then throwing the towel on the ground and walking out of the room. Blue-Cavil watched him go, looking back at the towel.

In the corridor, Blue-Cavil had caught up with Red-Cavil, who had become distracted in a reflective surface to see if he had any of the resurrection tank gel left in his hair.

"If this really is a surviving Daniel model, he's the only one" began Blue-Cavil. "We're currently tracking five surviving Battlestars and/or civilian fleets. The other four haven't yet reported seeing any Daniels amongst them."

"Really frakked me off seeing you on the Rycon. Do you know what it's like coming out of a sleeper program? It's almost like resurrecting? Just less... gunk..." Red-Cavil had found a large amount of gel behind his ear, and scrapped it off, throwing it to the floor.

Blue-Cavil looked on with disapproval. "Would you mind now doing that, brother? We aren't programmed with a capacity to care about untidy environments yet it does leave a hazard to slip on."

"Get a human to clean it up. We have work to do."

Both Cavils entered the control room of the resurrection ship. A Four and two Sixes were at the controls.

"How goes the war?" asked Red-Cavil, moving over to a liquid panel and putting his hand in it.

"Better than expectations" began a Six. "All twelve colonies are under Cylon control. Four Battlestars escaped the purge. Three of them have civilian ships with them, and we're also tracking a fourth civilian fleet by itself. I doubt they'd give us any grief beyond a week."

"Good" said Red-Cavil, and withdrew his hand. "Now, can I recommend we focus all efforts on finding the Neptune. Her complete destruction along with the death of her crew is paramount-"

"Why?" asked the Four. "Is she a threat to us?"

"More than you'll know. We have to-"

"Everyone... we have a visitor" said the second Six. The Four adjusted his hand inside the pool of liquid.

"It's a colonial raptor. Must've gotten lost from whoever he was travelling with. The raiders will take short work of it."

"I don't like this" said Red-Cavil.

"Raiders are closing- radiation levels are spiking! They've got-"

Outside, the tiny raptor was swarmed by raiders. A second before the first of nineteen missiles hit it, the large nuclear warhead aboard the raptor detonated with the power of a small sun. The shockwave spread outward, claiming the missiles and raiders before slamming into the watching Basestars. Four of them exploded, while the other two sustained major damage. The hybrid on board each Basestar began emitting a distress call.

Further away, the shockwave was heading towards the resurrection ship and two remaining Basestars. The Hybrid aboard each vessel triggered an emergency response and spun up their FTL drives. Three seconds before impact, they jumped away.

Aboard the resurrection ship, Red-Cavil slammed his fist into the liquid control panel, breaking a few connections and cracking the underside, allowing water to drip to the floor.

"This is _his_ fault" he said, and stormed from the room. Blue-Cavil watched him go. The Four stepped next to Blue-Cavil.

"Who was he talking about?"

- I - I - I -

In deep space, the Battlestar Neptune and four small civilian vessels waited. Then, a small flash of blue heralded the arrival of a tiny raptor, which began instant docking procedures with the port flight pod.

"Checkmate Neptune, this is Raptor 1152... mission accomplished."

CIC erupted with celebration and cheers as Janley grabbed her headset so she could here. "Roger, come on home."

Quinn stood at the combat table, looking up at DRADIS. He allowed himself a small smile to himself. Bragen stood across from him, arms folded.

"Well done, Commander" he said.

"Thank you Daniel."

"Now... as much as I think this plan of yours is commended, but why waste a raptor?"

"Raptor 722 was badly damaged in the opening attack." Quinn said, stepping round to Bragen's side of the table. "The central column beneath the deck was cracked, the canopy was smashed and there was warping on the door. We stripped what we could salvage and it just left an empty hull."

"Great, but unfortunately, we don't have any more dead raptors up our sleeves to throw at them."

"No... but we do have five other options to use." Quinn started to walk away.

"What? What can we possibly- oh no... you're not serious-"

"In war you have to make sacrifices" Quinn said, almost at the door. "Assemble the captains of the civilian vessels for a meeting in one hour in my quarters."

- I - I - I -

Later, Quinn was walking down a corridor and turned a corner. Emerging from a door was Bragen, who was cowering from a great deal of shouting coming from the room behind him. He slammed the door and walked up to Quinn.

"Your turn" he said.

Quinn smiled. "Not happy with the news?"

"Why did you send me in there first?"

"Training. What's the verdict?"

Bragen leaned against the nearby wall. "Two have agreed and one is considering it. I'll give you three guesses who doesn't wanna play ball, but you'll only need one."

Quinn smiled again. "Mr Kemel needs to understand the way things work around here."

"Do you blame him?" said Bragen, carefully. "There's no civilian administration anymore. This ship is run under military jurisdiction and you're asking the civilians to fall in line, and yet _not_ join the military."

"I get the distinct impression you're against this plan."

"You're talking about destroying five-sixths of the fleet in order to obtain a small victory. Forgive me but... yeah, I am."

Quinn nodded. "Noted. Take a break, it's my turn."

Quinn walked past Bragen and entered the room. Bragen shrugged to himself, and walked off.

In the room, Captain Wills from the Aegean and Ambassador Kemel sat at the rear of the room. Captain Jacobs from the DeepFreeze was on the left, Captain Michaels from the tylium tanker and Captain Anderson from the Long Haul on the right. Colonial Heavy 525 didn't have a captain as such, only a lead pilot used for ferrying the military personnel. As the ship fell under military jurisdiction the fate of that ship had already been made. Only Captain Anderson made any attempt to stand out of respect when Quinn entered.

"Gentlemen, thank you for coming here, I know it's a-"

"Spare us with the pleasantries, Commander" began Kemel, "this meeting is as pointless as it is long. Colonel Bragen was a poor choice to warm up the audience."

_Definitely back to his usual self_ thought Quinn.

"Oh this is a necessary meeting, Ambassador, I assure you, and I hope you'll all adhere to what I'm about to say. We have to strike a blow against the Cylons, and right now our intel shows us where Cylon forces are currently massing."

"What exactly are you planning on doing?" asked Kemel. "I mean, Colonel Bragen has already expressed his point of view we migrate everything left to us over to the Neptune but, are we planning on using our ships to ram Basestars? If so we wouldn't get close enough before being blasted into pieces, not to mention we'd have to have someone at the helm in case they make a course correction-"

"No Ambassador" said Quinn, "that isn't what we're planning. Yes, your ships will be sacrificed for the greater good, but not on a simple suicide run. The mass of your ships would hardly make a dent in their armour."

"Then what?"

"Ninety minutes ago we sent a fatally damaged Raptor into a nest of Basestars. From all accounts, we destroyed all of them."

"A single Raptor did that?" asked Captain Michaels.

"No... it was what she was carrying that did it."

"Nukes..." said Kemel, standing to meet Quinn eye to eye. "You don't need to destroy our ships but you need the FTL on them to deliver the nuclear warheads." He smiled. "You watch too many movies, Commander."

Quinn smiled back. _Thank the Gods_ he thought to himself; _Kemel is a film buff_. "An unfortunate reference, but yes, I am copying Stryker."

Anderson sat back and folded his arms. "Well I don't get the reference."

Quinn took a seat, and Kemel did the same.

"Commander Stryker of the Battlestar Medusa. Remember those? About, what, fifteen years old now?" Kemel nodded. "Anyway, in one movie Commander Stryker knew he was outnumbered by Cylon Basestars, his FTL was down and couldn't make a run for it without running the gauntlet, so instead he used nukes inside Raptors to take out his enemy. I plan on doing the same, but with your ships instead."

"So" began Anderson, leaning forward. "If we need to jump away while the Neptune engages the enemy we can't because we won't have ships, that what you're saying?"

"Yes, however, after today, I don't plan on facing the Cylons anymore."

"What do you mean?" asked Jacobs.

"Up until now we've all been waiting and hoping that the Cylons would be beaten, or leave, and that we'd be able to return home. Sadly that isn't going to happen. The sheer number of Basestars in orbit above each of the twelve colonies would suggest they plan on staying for a while."

"So what do we do?" asked Kemel.

"We leave" replied Quinn. "We find a new home, out there. The Scrolls of Pythia speak of Kobol and Earth, two planets with habitable biospheres that can sustain human life. I'm sure there are others too. We just have to find them."

- I - I - I -

Quinn entered CIC. Bragen and Resno were deep in a conversation at the combat table, as Quinn walked up.

"How are we looking?" asked Quinn, looking at the large star map of the entire known space of the twelve colonies.

"We've mapped out five targets which we think can offer maximum damage using a single ship at each location" said Resno, grabbing a pointing stick and began waving it over the map as he spoke. "The first target we suggest is here, beyond the orbit of Ragnar. Recon indicates this is where a great deal of their fleet pulled back to after the initial attack two days ago. Drop a nuke right in the middle of it and not only the shockwave would do damage, but imagine a few dozen Basestars suddenly thrown around against each other."

"I like your thinking Lieutenant. What else?"

"There are two resupply areas they've designated in the system" began Bragen, "one here above Virgon, the other near Canceron. Both groups contain several Tylium tankers and what we guess are either freighters or Centurion transports. Or both."

"Go on."

"Number four" said Resno "would be here. There's a ship of unknown design in orbit above Caprica, flanked by several Basestars. We figure the protection offered to it must mean it's important."

"Agreed" said Quinn, "what do we target with number five?"

Resno didn't say anything, instead looked at Bragen. Quinn picked up on this.

"What is it?"

"We have one rather large target planned for the final ship, but we'd need more intel first" said Bragen.

"Where?" asked Quinn.

"The Cylon homeworld" said Bragen.

"Now that's aiming high, but yeah, I'm all for it. Resno, begin prep. No ordinance to be loaded onto the ships until civie's are clear, got it?"

"Yes sir." Resno headed off to prepare.

Quinn picked up the blurred photo of their planned fourth target.

"Wonder what this does and why the Cylons are so keen to safeguard it..." he said to himself. Bragen overheard.

"Why don't we find out?"

- I - I - I -

The large door pulled back to reveal Simon alone on his bed in his cell. He sat up and saw Quinn and Bragen enter. Two heavily armed marines stood behind them but didn't enter.

"Simon, this is Colonel Bragen" said Quinn. Simon nodded. Bragen said nothing, and kept staring at the man.

"A pleasure Colonel. Apologies for what my people have done to you and your civilisation."

Bragen still remained silent. The thought of being confront with a Cylon gave him different thoughts to what any other human on board would've been feeling. _Does he recognise me?_ he thought.

"We need help with this" Quinn said, putting the image of the unknown ship in front of Simon.

Simon smiled. "This is our greatest achievement. Destroy this and you'll really set the Cylons back."

"What does it do?" asked Bragen.

"It's called a Resurrection Ship. When we die normally, a powerful receiver on our homeworld downloads our consciousness into new bodies. The receiver is huge, embedded deep within our largest citadel, five kilometres high and fifty kilometres wide. But even that isn't powerful enough to reach into colonial space."

"So you need a stepping stone" offered Quinn.

"Yes" said Simon, "the Resurrection Ship can receive the death signal and begin the transference there, provided there are enough bodies in storage."

"Thank you Simon, we're done here." Quinn turned to leave. Bragen didn't move.

"Tell me about your kind" said Bragen. Quinn stopped, a little perplexed. They had a busy day on.

"What would you like to know?" asked Simon.

"From what I hear" began Bragen, "there are twelve Cylons, is that right?"

"Yes, the Ones, Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, Sixes and Eights all exist as a group. The unknown five live elsewhere."

"Unknown five? You mean you don't know them?" asked Bragen.

"I'm afraid so. Part of our genetic makeup prevents us from enquiring about them. Whoever the Seven or Nine through Twelve are, we have no knowledge."

- I - I - I -

Red-Cavil was pacing in his room, deep in thought. Blue-Cavil entered.

"You look worried brother" said Blue-Cavil, taking a seat.

"We have a Seven in existence. Of course it frakking worries me."

"Do you think the others know?"

"No, and we should keep it that way" said Red-Cavil. "As far as they know, the final five consist of the remaining numbers up to twelve; if they knew there's actually a thirteenth Cylon we might have a mutiny."

"They won't find out" began Blue-Cavil, "but you have to understand we were simply clearing up a mess made by our dear mother. If she hadn't played favourites we may not have needed to start all this."

"The war was inevitable. Whether _Daniel_ remained loyal or not is irrelevant." Red-Cavil even had trouble saying his name.

"Why does it trouble you, brother?" asked Blue-Cavil. Red-Cavil spun on him, fury in his eyes.

"Because of what happened to _me_! They laughed at me, taunted me, knew I was trying hard but still, mother and Daniel decided I wasn't good enough."

"You are being delusional, brother, the impact of our mother's love was universal to all models. Yes she chose Daniel as her favourite, but the rest of us have moved on. Why you...?"

Red-Cavil turned his back on his brother. "I wanted it more. Our line wanted more love than our mother wanted to give. Her love... was meant for me."

Blue-Cavil stood up. "You were in love with her... I mean, truly in love. But brother, she was our mother-"

Red-Cavil turned and grabbed Blue-Cavil by the collars. "I frakking know that! I wanted her to myself! No Daniel, no brothers, no other models, JUST ME!"

With that, he pushed Blue-Cavil aside and stormed from the room. Blue-Cavil watched him go, deciding that keeping a strong eye on him now became his number one priority.

- I - I - I -

Valmar stood by her Viper as three more Raptors unloaded their cargo of passengers.

"So he's actually going through with this?" she said, as Lesterson emerged from under her Viper.

"It's what I've heard. Mean we've gotta baby sit 'em and keep this ship going proper otherwise we're all in the crapper."

"I don't like it" said Valmar, watching each new arrival like a hawk. "I hear rumour control thinks there's a Cylon on board, and that they look like us. What if one of them is a Cylon? We spend long hours trying to keep them out and suddenly we're letting them on board through the front door."

"I know. Still, from what I hear their new living areas have quite a few surveillance cameras around so we can keep track of them."

Lesterson found the tool he was looking for and disappeared back under the Viper.

Valmar watched as a woman with three small children left the last Raptor and tried to keep each of them in line. One of the girls – the middle child Valmar thought, judging by the height of her – ran out of her mother's reach and right towards her.

"Hey!" Valmar said instinctively. The little girl stopped and stared at Valmar as she walked up to her. Valmar could see the absolute terror in her eyes, and saw her pain. Her world had been taken away from her less than three days ago, and now comfort was being taken away from her for the sake of war. Valmar chose her words carefully.

"You shouldn't run around here, you might get hurt."

The little girl didn't say anything, just continued to stare. Valmar looked past her to see her mother trying to hand off her two remaining children to a steward that had accompanied them, the youngest of which was now crying.

"Are you a pilot?"

Valmar suddenly realised the little girl had asked her a question.

"Yes, yes I am" she said, resting her arm on the nosecone of the closest Viper. The pose was stupid she thought, but probably impressed the pants off the little girl.

"My daddy is a pilot too. He's serving on the Antia. The at.. the atla..."

"The Atlantia?" asked Valmar, hoping she was wrong.

"Yes!" the girl said, too happy. "Do you know when he will be joining us?"

Valmar crouched down by the little girl. By now all thoughts of hatred towards the new visitors were gone. Here was this little girl, a macrocosm in herself of what was going on all over the ship, trying to maintain some level of order.

"When I find him, I'll let you know."

That was it. Valmar had conquered the dragon. The little girl smiled and ran back to her mother, who by now had managed to get free of her other two children. She appeared to tell her mother what Valmar had said, and instantly looked up. Valmar had no idea how she would react, but said what she had said to simply end the situation.

The mother smiled and nodded, and walked her child back to the rest of her family.

"Nicely done" said lesterson, still half buried under the Viper.

"Just fix my bird" Valmar said, and walked off in the other direction.

- I - I - I -

"Raptor 612 Neptune, am ready to deliver payload."

"Roger Raptor 612, advise when complete" said Janley, and killed the speakers.

"Begin jump prep. Fleet status?" asked Quinn.

Resno checked his screens. "Aside for the Aegean, all civilian ships now stripped of civilians and anything else of value. The Tylium tanker has the coordinates for the first strike."

"Make damn sure no one activates the FTL until we give the order" said Quinn, watching DRADIS.

Quinn knew their hiding place deep outside the system would be unlikely to attract attention, yet they were faced with one small problem. The FTL engines on two of civilian ships weren't powerful enough to jump the ship to their intended targets in a single jump, and as the nuclear weapon was triggered by the power down of the FTL after the jump, it would have to be manned on an intermediate jump prior to arming.

And that meant protecting their precious weapon with the Neptune herself.

The remaining civilian ships would stay behind, manned with skeleton crews, with the exception of the Aegean as it was still being stripped of valuable equipment.

Bragen realised not only people, food or medicines were needed but also radio or television shows or movies should be saved. If they were to preserve their species they should try and preserve their culture too. To that end Quinn had ordered all libraries be copied and transferred to the Neptune, but to prevent piracy of such material on long luxury liners the servers were being locked out. Physically removing the servers meant dismantling part of the room they were in, and thus taking time.

"Course plotted, Tylium tanker is ready to jump."

_Now it starts_ thought Quinn. "Jump."

- I - I - I -

Red-Cavil was reading a read out of their progress in his room when an alarm went off.

"What is it?" he asked the intercom.

"Cavil, we have an intruder" said the Four on the other end. "Detectors have picked up two ships, one of them a Battlestar, on the outskirts of the system."

Cavil sprang out of her his bed, throwing the report aside and left the room.

In the command room, Red-Cavil saw Blue-Cavil standing with the Four.

"Is it the Neptune?"

"We think so" said Blue-Cavil. "The silhouette is definitely of that type of Battlestar, and there's only two of that class left. Galactica is too far away-"

"Both ships just jumped away" said the Four.

"Recon mission?" offered Blue-Cavil.

"He's searching for me..." said Red-Cavil. Blue-Cavil spied him thoughtfully.

"Monitor every detector we have in the system. I want to know when and where they turn up next."

A Six across the room pulled her hand out of her water console in surprise.

"What is it?' asked Blue-Cavil.

"The fall back position just got hit. Our Hybrid is reporting numerous distress calls. Multiple Basestars destroyed. The rest heavily damaged. Looks like a tactical nuclear strike-"

"Frak!" yelled Red-Cavil. "We need to find him. Whatever it takes, however long it lasts, we need him dead."

With that, he stormed from the room. Blue-Cavil watched him go.

"What should we do?" asked the Four.

"Do as he says... for now. Prep a heavy raider. We need to take a small journey."

- I - I - I -

The Neptune reappeared before the four small civilian vessels.

"Civilian fleet this is Neptune actual. We got the bastards."

Quinn listened as the open speaker allowed the cabins of the four civilian ships to relay the cheers of joy back to them.

"Good job" said Bragen, and shook Quinn by the hand.

"You and Resno found the target, all I did was pull the trigger. Janley, contact the DeepFreeze. They're next." Janley nodded. "Resno, move the DeepFreeze away from the rest of the fleet as before."

"Aye sir, Chief Kebble reports ordinance is waiting for launch in the Starboard hanger."

"Proceed."

- I - I - I -

The Cylon heavy raider jumped into normal space and immediately made a course correction taking it passed the floating Basestars ahead of it and onwards towards the massive structure in high orbit above a dusty red planet.

Once it had docked, both occupants made their way to one of the central command centres on board.

"Brothers, so good to see you again" said a Cavil dressed in black. Blue-Cavil smiled cordially, but Red-Cavil wanted to get straight to business.

"What's happened in the last hour? Have we been hit again?"

Black-Cavil stared at him, realising these brothers must have been monitoring the guerrilla attacks.

"Yes. Neptune jumped in so we engaged her, shortly after another cargo ship appeared and nuked our resupply depot."

"They've armed the civilian ships?" asked Red-Cavil.

"No" said Black-Cavil, "the civilian ship _was_ the weapon. She was carrying a nuke when she arrived. No doubt given how few humans there are left, the ship was unmanned."

"Frak him" said Red-Cavil. Blue-Cavil just rolled his eyes; this was getting old.

"There's more" continued Black-Cavil. "An hour later, Neptune jumped in again, followed seconds later by another civilian ship, a freighter. Naturally everyone went after tanker fearing another nuke."

"Did they get it?"

"No, whoever is on the Neptune is too smart for that. Neptune opened fire, using nukes herself, and destroyed the second depot by herself. The freighter jumped away. Two minutes after that we started receiving reports of a nuclear explosion above Libran. Six Basestars taken down."

"Frak! FRAK!" yelled Red-Cavil, unable to contain himself. Blue-Cavil started getting seriously worried for his brother's state of mine. _I might have to intervene if things get worse_ he thought.

- I - I - I -

Neptune jumped back to the rendezvous location to find the two civilian ships remaining.

"Janley, prepare Colonial Heavy 525 for jump."

Bragen turned to Quinn and lowered his voice.

"Ben, if you don't mind I'll sit out the next one. Nelson's taking too long clearing the Aegean and I'd hate for us to be caught with our pants down. We are, after all, stirring a hornet's nest."

Quinn nodded. "Sure thing. We'll make sure we leave at least one for you to handle personally. Pressure is off that one anyway, I want a full and proper recon into Cylon territory before we let her lose."

- I - I - I -

The Raptor appeared in the shadow of a small moon, just as planned. Checkmate peered out the canopy and saw a large corona about to rise over the horizon.

"Alright, let's do this, and do it fast" he said.

"You don't have to tell me twice" said Flashlight, his ECO.

Checkmate nudged the Raptor forward and into the daylight. Both occupants pulled down their visors to avoid the glare facing them. Once they cleared the corona they had a clear view of their target.

The red globe of the Cylon homeworld stared back at them.

Checkmate started shooting with his camera. "DRADIS reports over four dozen ships in orbit at present. There's also a- man that's a big ship!"

High above the northern hemisphere was a ship dwarfing the Basestars below. "DRADIS reports it's around thirty kilometres across."

"I'm getting pings off various defence satellites in orbit. Radiological signatures indicate they're armed with nukes" said Flashlight.

"I've found the Citadel" said Checkmate. "She's huge alright. Bigger than that ship in orbit."

"The Cylons have been busy..."

"It's gonna be a hard ask to get a decent shot at the Citadel, like Bragen wants-"

"DRADIS contact!" yelled Flashlight. "Raiders inbound!"

"We're gone" said Checkmate, calmly. With the flick of a switch the already-spooled Raptor jumped away.

- I - I - I -

Bragen stepped aboard the Aegean from the Raptor and instantly saw why people were finding the ship so hard to leave. The carpets and drapes were brand new; the walls still smelled of fresh paint and extremely polished Virgon Pine on the wood panelling. Not only would this be luxurious but probably the last examples in existence. A section near a staircase to an upper level was missing, no doubt taken as a souvenir.

_Quinn was right about wasting tax payer money_ Bragen thought to himself.

Bragen entered the flight deck of the Aegean to find Colonel Nelson sitting at the controls, staring into space out the forward windows. The cabin itself was flashed up beyond what was necessary, then again a guided tour by a visiting dignitary could break out at any moment so every room on the ship probably had to look amazing.

"Colonel, sorry, didn't see you there" said Nelson, peeling himself away from his view. "I was just-"

"Daydreaming, yeah I saw." He didn't mean to come across as a hard ass but reports of Nelson's delay tactics had made for concerning reading. "Nelson, why isn't this ship ready for evac?"

"Sir, most of the material has been broken down and shipped off. Still getting the last of the servers and then we're done."

Bragen walked in the centre of the room then froze. Near the back of the spacious cabin was a large crate, two metres long and wires running from it. It was hooked into the computer network.

"What the frak is that!" he said, alarmed, although deep down he already knew.

"That's the nuke that'll tear apart the next Cylon ship that threatens us. Even if we kill just one Cylon-"

"You're supposed to wait until the ship is evacuated before loading that aboard!" said Bragen, almost ready to throttle Nelson with his shoelace.

Bragen ran to the front console to raise Quinn, but a flash caught his attention.

Outside, Neptune and Colonial Heavy 525 had jumped away.

- I - I - I -

Neptune arrived in orbit of Caprica, sounding Cylon alarms all over the system. The Hybrid aboard the Resurrection ship sent warning messages to the protective Basestars and a priority message to the Colony. As the Basestars left to engage it, the Resurrection ship spun up its FTL to leave. Eight seconds before the predicted jump, a proximity alert told the Hybrid a Colonial transport had jumped in right beside her, shattering the port side of the ship and causing many Cylon humanoid bodies to be sucked out into space.

The transport then fired its retro rockets and collided with the forward bow of the ship, wedging the two in place. Before the Hybrid could reverse the computers, both ships jumped away in a flash.

The Resurrection Ship appeared in orbit above Libran, and six Basestars were instructed to gather around her for defence and attempt to remove the colonial ship wedged in her side.

Then a further alarm activated, warning the Hybrid of a radioactive signature coming from within the colonial transport. The Hybrid instructed all ships to retreat but it was too late. In a matter of nanoseconds, the colonial transport had exploded, tearing the superstructure away from the rest of the ship and exposing the Hybrid to the vacuum of space.

A second before the Hybrid ceased to function, alarms from the orbiting Basestars reached the dying sensors connecting the Hybrid with the system, and warning hull integrity would not survive against the nuclear detonation bearing down on them.

- I - I - I -

Bragen took a quick tally of the situation. There were still seventy three people on board, and an unauthorised nuclear weapon.

An _active_ unauthorised nuclear weapon.

Nelson's initial assessment of the exodus was incorrect. Most of the equipment had already been offloaded and all that remained were small boxes that could be carried by hand, or shoved into a pocket. In fact half of the people left on board were scavenging whatever they could, taking cutlery, photos, towels; anything that would remind them of home or become valuable later on. Whatever that meant.

On the flight deck, Nelson was in a corner feeling sorry for himself. Bragen was humming around the nuke, wondering what to do. The nuke was sitting on deck platting that actually lowered into a service conduit, which explained how Nelson got it there so quickly. He could reverse it and send it back to the small hanger where a Raptor would collect it but that would still be a while.

"I'm so sorry..." Nelson kept saying to himself.

"Can it" said Bragen for the seventeenth time.

Bragen checked all systems. The FTL was giving off warning lights, but Bragen had already been warned the FTL on this ship was dodgy, and seriously in need of an upgrade. Not that it mattered now. Bragen checked the destination coordinates which had already been pre-programmed.

"Nelson, why are we set to jump for Tauron?" he asked.

"Oh that... sorry sir, just wanting to see home again one last time before we leave..."

"I know what you mean... I would too but we've got a job to do. This ship is primed to hit a very valuable target, but it's not at Tauron, not even in Colonial space. It's a biggie so let's not frak it up, ok?"

- I - I - I -

The Neptune returned to the rendezvous location to find the solitary vessel remaining.

"Aegean this is Neptune actual. Give me some good news, Bragen."

"Aegean Neptune, maintain your distance and keep your FTLs spooled. We've got a live nuke over here."

Quinn went as white as a sheet but it was Resno that beat him to the order he was thinking. "Helm, engines full reverse, set condition one throughout the ship."

Quinn thought it was a good choice to allow Resno to relieve Bragen. He was doing a fine job in whatever role he was thrown into in such a short space of time, and no doubt would be an Admiral by the end of the week.

"Neptune Aegean... repeat and clarify your last" said Quinn, still trying to understand the hows and whys.

"Sir, turns out the nuke was shipped over here ahead of time to speed things up. Given the delay of the exodus things got... messed up."

"You bet your frakking ass it got messed up" yelled Quinn, trying not to make it sound like he was angry at Bragen. He picked up the handset and took it off speakers. "Who do we have to thank for this frakking mess?"

Bragen looked over his shoulder at Nelson, who hadn't moved. "Sir... that matter has been taken care of, and you'll get a full report when I return."

The computer on the front console began beeping.

"What is that?" asked Bragen to Nelson, who pulled himself away from his misery to check.

"Repeat your last Aegean" said Quinn through the speakers.

"Wait one" said Bragen, still at the communications desk.

"It's an engine alarm. Power surge in the main drive room" said Nelson.

Bragen checked. "Oh frak... she's spooling up."

- I - I - I -

On the Neptune, Quinn was waiting anxiously, still holding the handset to his ear.

"Sir! The Aegean!" Janley yelled.

Quinn looked to DRADIS. The Aegean was gone.

- I - I - I -

The Aegean appeared near the murky globe of Tauron. On the flight deck, Major Nelson lying on the floor, half dazed by what had happened. Smoke poured from the forward console.

"Nelson, what the frak was that?" yelled Bragen, jumping in the co-pilot seat. Nelson tried to look at his console, but it was a charred mess.

"Don't think I'm gonna be any help over here" he said, and moved to the back of the cabin to check another panel.

"I've disabled the timer on the nuke so she's ain't gonna blow anytime soon" said Bragen, still not entirely confident about the very large bomb seated only a few metres behind him.

"FTL is fried" said Nelson. "We've got a fire in the engine room. I'll head down and-"

"No, wait here" said Bragen, flipping open a panel. "There's no one down there now. I'll blow an airlock and take it out."

The cabin vibrated as the hatch blew. Fire alarms on Bragen's console ceased.

"I don't think the FTL can be fixed. We'll have to wait for the Neptune to come find us."

"That could be ages. I doubt we'd have enough food to last that long." Nelson said, closing up his panel.

DRADIS in front of Bragen started beeping. "I doubt food will be high on our list of concerns."

Outside, two Basestars jumped into orbit. Seconds later, Bragen saw the Basestars make a course correction towards their location.

"They've seen us. Frak it! Sublight engines won't outrun them" he said.

Nelson sat back down in his chair. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Not your fault the FTL on this ship is ancient."

Through the cockpit they saw the Basestars launching raiders at them.

"We're gonna need a miracle to get out of this one" he added.

As the raiders crossed half the distance between the Basestars and the Aegean, a bright blue flash ripped space apart in front of them. Most raiders dived for cover but six of them collided with the massive hulk of the Neptune. Immediately the Neptune opened fire with her forward guns, the salvo fire blasting across space and severely damaging the nearest Basestar. Five seconds after arriving, the Neptune's flak barrier was in full flight, tearing down any raider near enough. Along her port and starboard flight pods, forty Vipers launched and began hunting down their prey.

In CIC, Quinn was monitoring DRADIS like a Caprican Hawk. "Sitrep?"

"Two Basestars and several squadrons of raiders" said Resno, watching his screens. "Our sudden arrival seems to have taken them by surprise. One Basestar damaged by our salvo fire and is withdrawing to the far orbit of Tauron."

"Target all weapons on the second Basestar. Janley, status of Aegean?"

"Colonel Bragen reports FTL is history, sir" said Janley.

"Frak it! Alright, we do it the hard way. Launch as many SAR raptors as you need to evacuate the Aegean. Take us in closer until she's right under our wing."

"Firing solutions acquired" yelled Resno.

"Fire!"

In space the Neptune opened up with her forward batteries, slashing apart raider after raider before finally reaching the Basestar. Missile containers along one of the Basestar's upper pylons exploded, sending her into a clockwise spin.

"Direct hit" said Resno, "Basestar is listing to port. Likely she won't taken any further part in the battle sir"

"Good, redirect all batteries to target oncoming raiders" said Quinn.

"Sir..." said Resno, looking at DRADIS. "Sir, I have four additional Basestars joining the fight."

Quinn saw them too. "Frak... why did it have to be four... Janley, belay my last. When we're close enough, extend the transfer tubes to the Aegean. We're gonna dock."

Valmar's Viper took a hit on the wing. "Frak you!" she yelled as the raider dogged her tail.

"Misfire, you've got one on your six" said Razorclaw.

"You think I don't know that!" replied Misfire, putting her Viper in a sharp nose dive. DRADIS showed the raider still in pursuit.

"Right... if that's how you want to play it..." she said to herself, and punched the Viper at full burn directly at Neptune's flak barrier. The raider followed her, dodging flak after flak, but eventually one clipped its wing and sent it spinning away. Valmar saw this and spun around, guns blazing. The raider exploded in a satisfactory blast.

"Nice shooting Misfire" said Razorclaw, as he took out two raiders himself. Valmar took her Viper back into the fight as she noticed the four newly arrived Basestars bearing down on them.

"Holy frak look! The Neptune!" yelled Razorclaw, and Valmar adjusted her Viper while keeping one eye on the enemy.

The Neptune has slowly slithered over the Aegean to completely cover her. But then she saw what Razorclaw was talking about.

Her nuclear launch silos were opening up.

In CIC, Quinn and Resno turned the activation keys which deployed a command console out of a wall between them. Quinn entered the command codes and a launch light turned from red to green.

"Resno, transfer target coordinates to the battle computer" said Quinn, who by now was sweating.

"Aye sir... coordinates have been transferred. Sure we're not simply saving these people only to give them radiation sickness?"

"We'll deal with any illnesses later. Janley, tell the Vipers to find a hole for the next sixty seconds" he said, and pressed the trigger.

On the dorsal hull, four nuclear warheads blasted out of the tubes and headed towards their targets. The Vipers all scattered as the raiders now went after the four nukes, but the speed was a factor. Basestars launched missiles to try and target the oncoming firestorm, but these missiles had electronic countermeasures built in, so any missile that got near enough would be guided away.

The first nuke slammed into the Basestar and torn it in half, and lit up the sky above Tauron. With DRADIS temporarily out of action, the remaining three nukes also found their targets and appeared to slam into the three other Basestars.

The shockwave from the four nukes spread over the Neptune, but the Aegean and Viper squadrons were safe for the time being under the ship. Raiders out in the open were either incinerated or blinded by the nukes, and became easy prey for Neptune's defensive batteries.

Between the Aegean and the Neptune, passenger after passenger crawled up four separate transfer tubes and into the safety of the Battlestar. Valmar swung her Viper round, watching all areas of space around them, watching the crimson light slowly dissipate from somewhere above the Neptune, allowing the darkness to consume her once again.

"All wings Misfire, DRADIS is erratic so don't trust it watch your-"

As she spoke, a single Raider flew below the hull of the Neptune and opened fire. Five Vipers were blown apart, another two were seriously damaged.

"FRAK NO!" yelled Valmar, and opened fire herself. Eleven other Vipers joined in, tearing the raider apart.

In CIC, Quinn was monitoring the developments.

"...we lost five down here... without DRADIS we're sitting ducks."

Quinn spun on Resno. "Status of Aegean?"

"Almost empty sir" he said.

"Janley, recall all Vipers, get them on board immediately. Resno, begin jump prep" said Quinn, as he grabbed the handset. "Get me the Aegean."

Bragen and Nelson were monitoring the evacuation as the com system chirped.

"Neptune Aegean, you copy?"

Bragen grabbed the handset. "We're here. Nice fireworks display out there."

"Cut the chatter. You're the last ones on the ship. Get moving."

Bragen and Nelson ran out of the cockpit and into the corridor.

On the port flight pod, Valmar landed her bird at the forward end of the landing deck. She heard the maglocks clamp her landing gear and felt the elevator begin to pull her down into the depths of the flight pod. As she went, she noticed something ahead of her, coming out of the shadow of Tauron and the cloud of nuclear vapours directly ahead. It was moving quite fast. Just as she realised what it was, her Viper slipped below the deck plating.

In CIC, Quinn was monitoring the evacuation when Valmar's voice broke over the com.

"There's a frakking Basestar heading right for us, off the forward bow!"

Quinn stared at DRADIS, but it was still a pile of static and blurred images. "We don't see anything here Misfire, you sure?"

"From the damage I saw it looked like the first Basestar we hit. Must've used the planet's gravity to slingshot back around to us."

"Razorclaw Neptune, I can confirm Misfire's assessment" said Razorclaw, who was sitting in his Viper in the starboard flight pod, waiting for an elevator to come free. In front of him, the heavily damaged form of the Basestar was heading right for them, trailing smoke and debris. "Sir, from its speed I'd say she's on a collision course."

Quinn turned to Resno. "Forward batteries, full salvo fire, fire at will."

Janley got his attention. "Sir, firing control reports forward guns out of commission, something about damage from the nuclear blasts."

Quinn was still straining at DRADIS in a vain hope it might clear at that instant. "Frak... Resno, get a ping on that Basestar, tell me how long we've got."

"Already there sir" he said, "sir it's... sir! Less than sixty seconds!"

"Come on Bragen..." he said to himself.

On the Aegean, Bragen and Nelson ran through the corridors like scolded children. The hatch was right in front of them. Bragen grabbed it and hauled himself up, Nelson not far behind. As Bragen cleared the half way point, he looked out of the transparent quad-thick film over the transfer tube to the bow of the ship. The massive form of the shattered Basestar was practically right on top of them. He scrambled up the hatch.

"Nelson, I don't think we're gonna make it!" Bragen said, as he cleared the last hatch and turned around.

Nelson wasn't behind him.

Bragen looked and saw him thirty feet away, at the bottom of the transfer tube.

"You will" Nelson said, and slammed the emergency release lever.

Instantly the hatch below Bragen closed. Outside, the four transfer tubes were ripped away from the ship as emergency retro thrusters pushed the Aegean on a downwards angle.

"Nelson!" yelled Bragen. The memories of losing his wife and daughter back on Libran when the hatch of the DeepFreeze closed on him came flooding back to him.

Nelson grabbed the intercom near the hatch. "We're on, jump" he said, and then raced off back down the corridor.

"JUMP!" yelled Quinn, as Resno turned the FTL Key.

Outside, the Basestar was about to smash into the forward hull when the Neptune suddenly vanished. It drifted into the space previously occupied.

Below the Basestar, the Aegean continued to drift down, slightly damaged by the close proximity to the FTL displacement shockwave. On board, Nelson had reached the cockpit again, and went straight for the nuclear warhead. He turned the main access panel and primed the trigger, which released a small handheld plunger. He glanced at the cockpit windows, which the ship had rotated just enough to see the Basestar trying to make a getaway, although more likely he thought to himself, just continuing on the same trajectory.

_Even if there's just one surviving Cylon on board_ he thought to himself, _you're still in my range_.

Out of the window he spotted a dozen missiles being fired from the rear section of the Basestar, and head right for him.

"Times up" he said to himself, smiled and pressed the plunger.

- I - I - I -

Some distance away, the Neptune jumped in. This time, no civilian vessels greeted her as she arrived. For the first time in three days, she was truly alone.

Inside, Quinn was walking through corridors packed with civilians, hunting for someone in particular. Finally he saw him.

Bragen was leaning up against a wall, not far from the hatch where he had just escaped from.

"You're alive! Thank the Gods!" said Quinn, not meaning to sound so spiritual. Bragen didn't react, instead kept staring at the same point on the opposing wall.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Quinn said, then looked round the corridor. "Where's Nelson?"

"He stayed behind so we could escape" Bragen said mournfully. "He sent the all clear signal from the Aegean."

Quinn put an arm on Bragen's shoulder, and helped him up from the wall.

"C'mon" he said, "let's get out of here."

- I - I - I -

"How did you find us?"

"Hmm?" said Quinn, gathering his reports for the day in CIC. Bragen was standing near the combat table, arms folded.

"When we jumped, the jump location wasn't registered. How did you track us?"

"Oh, we had an uplink installed on each of the civilian ships in case of what happened. Two of the five ships had iffy FTLs on board so we wanted to make sure we didn't have any lost sheep."

"Neat" said Bragen, stepping over to Quinn. "I am very grateful for you coming after us. You could've simply turned your back and carried on into deep space but you didn't."

"There were seventy two other people on that ship. Didn't want to leave them behind. You on the other hand-"

"Frak you, sir" said Bragen, smiling.

Quinn finally gathered his paperwork and put it under his arm as he turned to leave. "Truth be told I wouldn't want to abandon you. You're too good to lose."

"Oh give it a rest sir, I'm no one special. From what I remember I wasted my life" said Bragen, feeling sorry for himself. "I can barely remember my family, although I think I had a strong relationship with my mother."

Bragen thought to himself, how weird that sounded coming off his own lips, especially given how the week was panning out.

"Well now we begin again" said Quinn, trying to be reassuring.

"Checkmate got some good intel today. Might mean we'll be able to take a shot at the Cylon homeworld."

"I doubt it" said Quinn. "Judging by the images we got back they've got heaps of Basestars and some super-Basestar in orbit. Even if we could get there we probably wouldn't last long."

"Would be worth it though" countered Bragen. "That Citadel Simon was talking about would make for such a tempting target."

"Tell me how to get close enough without getting blown to pieces and I'll consider it."

Bragen leant with one arm on the combat table. "Jump into a low orbit. You'll reach terminal velocity before they have a chance to open fire. Drop the nukes and jump away before they hit."

"Interesting, and before today I would've considered it, but now that we've got civilians on board I think I'd rather try another way."

"Use a Raptor then."

"Don't wanna waste them. You said so yourself." Quinn smiled. "Besides, in the last five years the Colonial Military had started experimenting with Electronic Counter Measures for the likes of missile attacks, but recent tests have also included FTL deflection."

"You mean stopping a ship from arriving where it planned to be?"

"Yeah. Testing didn't work that well. Point is, if we've been planning to use such a device then no doubt the Cylons with all their infiltration techniques probably learned about it, did tests themselves and maybe even implemented it around their homeworld."

"How can you be sure?" asked Bragen.

"There is no way to be sure, not unless you actually jump in and find out the hard way."

"Alright... alright..." Bragen said, thinking hard. "If I come up with a plan I'll let you know."

"OK. Then maybe one day we can come back and nail the bastards."

Bragen turned to leave when he remember something and reached into his pockets. "Oh, I swiped you this from the Aegean before I left, thought you might wanna put it in your room."

Quinn took the piece of paper from Bragen and unfolded it.

It was a semi-large but full map of Aquaria, detailing the major continents of Arctis and Hydra, the various oceans, the frozen poles and the nine major cities. Quinn couldn't believe it.

"This is... great, thank you." He shook Bragen's hand for a long time, feeling very humbled by the gift.

The night shift entered and began taking their station. Major Ramsey nodded to Quinn as he walked in. The room became crowded as Janley and Resno began packing their things away and acknowledging their replacements.

"Time to leave, me thinks" said Quinn.

"Pushy bunch, ain't they?" said Bragen.

In the corridor Quinn and Bragen left CIC and immediately spotted two children spying on them, who suddenly turned and ran back down the corridor.

"How the hell did they-"

"Ignore them" said Quinn. "They're in the wrong place, but marines will grab them soon enough. Besides, still a lot of construction going on down below, not surprised some of them have come for a walk. New Aquaria is a bit of a shambles from what I hear.

"New Aquaria?" Bragen asked.

"I'll tell you tomorrow."

_**END OF DAY THREE**_


	4. DAY FOUR

**NEPTUNE'S ****LEGACY**

_**DAY **__**FOUR – SEEK THE ANGEL**_

"...and let it be known that the Gods in their infinity wisdom sent messengers to the Colonials in a bid to help them find their salvation and to guide them away from the darkness. Some of them appear is visions, others as angels given form. They should be treated with the same respect we treat each other for we are all one in the same. So say we all."

"So say we all" erupted the large gathering. A man dressed in black with a patterned strap down either side of his cloak stepped down from his podium as the standing crowd noticed Commander Quinn step forward.

"Thank you, Father Ardrossan, and thank you all to you, the people of New Aquaria. Everyone of the Battlestar Neptune is grateful for allowing us into your area of the ship and sharing with us this beautiful ceremony..."

Valmar drifted off into her own thoughts. _This is so boring _she thought to herself. She glanced around the gathering and spied several pilots she knew; Maze, Bottleneck, Snowball...

Snowball. Never in her life had she heard such a loud and proud singer. Drowning out anyone else singing the hymns around him, Jenson 'Snowball' Paine was a devout follower, and any opportunity that arose to discuss scripture Jenson was right there.

Personally, Alex Valmar wasn't a believer, and never had been. Her parents lived in a largely scientific community on Picon, and scripture was banned in her household. When she was growing up, Alex found herself being cast out from activities for her blasphemous beliefs. When she joined the Colonial Military, she kept her background a secret to avoid further harassment and missing out on any promotion opportunities. Still, it might've got her out of having to sit through two hours of Father Ardrossan's service – while standing. Then again, being CAG prevented her from avoiding a lot of activities.

"...and so I feel it best that we work together as one crew. Not as civilian and military but as human. Thank you."

The crowd burst into complementary applause then began to break up. Quinn rejoined Bragen who complimented him on his speech, who shook his head and they both laughed.

_At least they're human_ thought Valmar. She remembered serving under Commander Trevelyan aboard the Battlestar Ulysses three years ago, and how he never smiled. Ever. Having a commanding officer she could share a joke with made for an easier assignment.

"Misfire, wait up!"

Alex turned and saw Resno and Janley heading towards her. She had had a meal with them the night after the Poseidon incident, and got to know them well, if only due to the fact they were nearly the same age as her. As she waited, a woman in a red coat and purple & yellow hat shot past her in a hurry. Valmar gave her an evil stare which was ignored.

"They don't like us much" said Janley. "After we destroyed their ships they felt coming onto a Battlestar was a death sentence."

"Idiots. Don't they know this ship is the most shielded and heavily armed vessel they could hope to step foot on?" Resno spouted, not caring to lower his voice.

"On the flipside, if we get involved in a battle, everyone comes. The civilians can't jump away to safety." Valmar replied, not wishing to take the side of the civilians but decided to state the obvious retort.

"True. Wanna come for a walk?" Janley asked, trying to be friendly. "I've gotta drop something off at West Aquaria."

"Sure" said Valmar.

- I - I - I -

After Quinn's plan to use the civilian ships as nuclear weapons against the Cylons, Neptune became the only ship left to them, and thus the civilians had to come on board. Part of the problem lay where to put them all, but thanks to Admiral Nellis fourteen months earlier, that was an easy issue to resolve.

As part of the refit, the Neptune no longer required the need to retract her flight pods for an FTL jump, and thus the cavity reserved for such an event suddenly became prime real estate. Admiral Nellis opted to expand the main hull to the edge of the plating, thus giving them an increased capacity of over fifteen hundred people if required.

To avoid civilians wandering into areas deemed off limits, only the newly created cavities would be given to the civilians. A sealed corridor linking the two sections was used across five decks. Safety protocols on the ship meant that this wasn't the only access way into East (Port) and West (Starboard) Aquaria respectively for either side of the ship, but it was the only official route, and civilians were encouraged rather than ordered to adhere to the rules.

The total population of New Aquaria was eight hundred and sixty three, and roughly split evenly between the two areas. Commander Quinn was true to his word and promoted Ambassador Kemel – pending elections – to become mayor of the small civilian state.

Valmar, Resno and Janley were walking through the 'bridge' connecting the two areas. Children were racing each other along the long and largely uninterrupted corridor, while some adults sat at various points along the way, still in shock over what happened to their home worlds.

They turned a corner and Valmar stopped. She saw the same person with purple and yellow hat disappearing into a cabin.

"What is it?" Resno asked, trying to see what she was looking at.

"I don't know... someone that I saw in East Aquaria... but we should've beaten her here, we were heading in the opposite direction."

Resno sniffed the air. "Do you smell something? Sickly sweet... like that fairground candy-"

"It's IncinaPaste." Janley said. "Used to line the walls of service conduits. Shouldn't be in here though."

As they watched, a civilian emerged from hole in the wall, and disappeared into another cabin.

"We better get the Commander over here" Janley said, "I think we have a problem."

- I - I - I -

"If they're getting into areas they shouldn't then we'll just post a couple of extra guards down here." Quinn said, as he walked with Janley. "I'm sure even Kemel will use his own men-"

"It's not that sir" Janley said, as they round the corridor to an apparent dead end. "It's the fact that these access ways are here at all. See this" Janley pointed at a circular disc on the wall, slightly recessed.

"What of it? Looks like a Dyson conduit."

"They are. Janley pulled a lever on the wall and the disc slid back, revealing a darkened circular hallway. The smell of the IncinoPaste reached Quinn.

"Oh close it up! Gods..." Janley closed it as Quinn bent over and dry wretched. "I can't stand that stuff..."

Janley pulled the lever back and the disc slammed shut. "Sorry sir, I didn't-"

"Don't worry, not your fault." Quinn said as he stood up, wiping his mouth. "Now... I would suggest simply sealing these up but I have a feeling you're gonna tell me there's more to it than that."

"I'm afraid so. The fact that the Dyson conduits still exist on this ship is a critical error as part of the refit."

"How so?"

Janley pulled out a diagram showing a cross section of the ship at their present location. "The way the new tri-hull was designed essentially pulls the hull over the ship... if you want a rough analogy, think of a corset over a large stomach. Now the stress of this tight seal is held at bay by these large struts embedded deep into the ship."

Quinn looked up and saw one such strut, bulging out from the ceiling and disappearing beyond the wall.

Janley continued. "The fact that the Dyson conduits have been left wide open is a danger, as the ship could collapse in on itself if a missile were to hit the right point. And before you ask your next question, according to the refit logs from Fairlight station, they were filled in three weeks ago."

"Minus a visual inspection no doubt..." Quinn said, putting a hand on the wall. "Have Hopper and his team begin gathering raw materials to fill in these conduits. Send a message to Kemel to tell his people not to use them in case of an emergency. Lock down New Aquaria during condition one if you have to. We'll deal with the complaints later."

- I - I - I -

Valmar slid down the ladder to the hanger deck to see Lesterson climbing out of the seat of her Viper.

"Took your time getting here, ma'am" he said, smiling.

"Some of us had to attend church this morning, chief" she replied, admiring her ship.

"Didn't think that was your style. All that Gods stuff-"

"Keep your voice down. Some things are told in confidence around here."

Lesterson held up his arms in defence. "Ok ok, I didn't mean to offend. Your secret is safe with me." He turned and motioned to the Viper. "She's all fueled and ready to go. Even managed to get Bragen's ass print off your canopy."

"My hero." She climbed up the ladder and leapt into her chair. Lesterson came up and stood beside her, handing her her helmet.

"Once round the block. You dent it you bought it."

"Yes dad." Valmar smiled as the canopy slammed shut.

- I - I - I -

Outside, four Vipers streaked out of the Port flight pod and into a curving arc around the ship.

"Alright team listen up. Last night's training run was sloppy so let's get it right. We're on patrol for a couple of hours so expect a few surprises."

"The Gods have truly blessed you with such amazing leadership skills, Misfire" said Snowball.

_Oh shut up_ thought Valmar.

- I - I - I -

Quinn entered his quarters to find Dr Thane waiting for him.

"Doc... sorry, I got held up. What can I do for you? Please, sit."

They both sat on his couch. "Drink?" Quinn offered, but Thane refused.

"I never touch the stuff. It would be advisable for the Commander to do the same."

Quinn smiled, and took a drink. "Keeps me sane."

"This is why I never trusted the colonial military. Full of drunks"

Quinn offered an olive branch and put the drink down. "What can I do for you, Doc?"

"After the ceremony this morning I went into East Aerilon and tried to help a man with Gedric's Disease."

"Doesn't sound too serious. It's minor, isn't it?"

"He's dead."

Quinn was shocked. "But... don't you just treat that with a dose of... er... what's it called..."

"Trianapol."

"Yeah, that stuff".

"We're out" Thane said. "Also Hiacyclaline, Droshanaline and half a dozen other basics. Gods help anyone who needs neuro-surgery."

"I thought we had basic supplies on board?" Quinn said.

Thane shook her head. "I did an inventory on the medicines you have on board, and of what we salvaged from the civilian ships, and we have very little. We need a resupply."

Quinn stood up and paced to the back of his quarters. "That's fine Doc, just fine. You point to where on the map we can find a hospital or drug store that hasn't been nuked by Cylons and I'll jump us there in ten minutes."

"Actually... I might know of such a place."

- I - I - I -

In CIC, Quinn, Bragen, Janley, Thane and Resno were standing around the combat table. Kemel and two marines entered.

"Good morning Mr Mayor" said Quinn, trying to be as cordial as he could. "Forgive the summons but we needed to ask you something of high importance."

Kemel smiled as politely as he could muster but it was clear he wasn't happy about being there. "Last time I was in CIC I had several guns pointed at me. You'll forgive me if I don't seem pleased."

Quinn didn't answer. He knew that incident was a dark moment in their relationship, but an unfortunately necessary one.

"Mr Mayor... we have to ask you about the Regenesis Asteroid."

Kemel stopped, and stared at the Commander. His glance went to all present, and finally Thane. "I don't know what you're talking about, Commander."

"I'm afraid you do. It's one of the worst kept secrets of the quorum. We need to find it."

"Again, I can't help you."

Thane stepped forward. "Tell them, sir. We don't have the medicines on board to survive long term. We need help."

"No!" Kemel said in defiance. "I will not release any information to you regarding that asteroid. It was our last resort option and I don't want to use it yet"

"Look around you" said Bragen. "We're not exactly in the prime position here. I think we're as far as level one of worst case scenario as you can get".

"He's right" said Quinn, "the asteroid was built for such a possibility, that humanity was on the brink of extinction and we needed to re-colonise elsewhere-"

"The plan was to find somewhere then come back for what the asteroid contained. Not to drag it along with us with the Cylons on our tail."

"He has a point" said Janley. "It wouldn't be advisable to take everything in the asteroid. Only for the two thousand or so people on this ship, and maybe the next generation or so. If we do manage to get in and out undetected, it would be handy to leave behind for another trip. Or if other survivors need to access it."

"Next generation" Kemel snorted. "Do you even know how farfetched that sounds?"

"We have to think of the future" said Quinn, "otherwise what hope is there? Now... will you help us...?"

Kemel thought for a while. Then he turned to Quinn. "Contrary to popular myth, the asteroid's location isn't known to quorum members. What is known is the frequency."

"Frequency?" said Resno.

"Yes. The asteroid is essentially a dead rock. Hidden in the belt between the orbits of Virgon and Zeus. It doesn't emit any signals of any kind, that is, unless you get it to sing."

"So you transmit a signal at the right frequency, it sends a signal back?" asked Bragen.

"That's right. The harmonic piggy backs onto the incoming signal so only the person broadcasting gets the reply. The frequency changes every time a new quorum member is elected, for security reasons. Now, of how the asteroid is actually structured I have no idea. Rumours indicate there's a medical area, food supplies and an 'ark' of some sort, though what that means is beyond me."

Quinn stepped forward. "Thank you Mr Mayor. Again your help is much appreciated."

Kemel took a step forward as well, making Quinn feel uncomfortable at their close proximity. "Don't make me regret what I've said" Kemel said, "that asteroid is our last hope."

Kemel turned and left CIC. Quinn turned to the others.

"Such a cheery fellow, isn't he. Right... Resno, begin jump prep. Plot a course to take us somewhere quiet and out of the way."

"You're taking the whole ship?" Bragen asked.

"Yes. We're some way from the colonies at the moment. It would take a raptor eight or nine jumps to get home. It'll take us two. Besides, I don't like the idea of having a crew so far away from the Battlestar in case things go wrong. And... we don't know how much stuff we're gonna be stealing."

"Borrowing" corrected Janley with a smile.

"Bragen, recall the fighters once we're ready. Have raptor teams standing by to launch at a moment's notice. I want you leading them." Bragen nodded. "Janley, make sure the engineers are aware of our situation and the Dyson conduits are sealed. We go in half an hour."

Thane smiled. "You told me ten minutes."

Quinn walked away from the combat table, but shouted back. "Never trust the colonial military."

- I - I - I -

A sudden flash of blue interrupted the otherwise orange and red clouds of Zeus. The Neptune slipped inside a dense pocket of gas and disappeared from sight.

In CIC, Resno was monitoring the FTL computer. "Sir, we've arrived at the coordinates specified. A hundred clicks below the surface of Zeus."

"Well done Resno" said Quinn. "Janley, can we send the signal from here?"

"I think so" she said, checking her readings. "We should have a direct line of sight to the asteroid belt, however if it's on the other side of the system we might have issues."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Send the signal."

"Transmitting now."

Quinn paced the deck of CIC. A minute had passed. "Anything?"

"No sir, not yet". Janley pressed the headset to her ear even more.

"Put it on speakers." Janley pressed a couple of buttons and CIC was filled with the sound of low static.

"How long do we wait before we try the other side of the solar system?" Resno asked.

"Give it a few more minutes" said Quinn, "you never know if-"

A rhythmic, pulsing noise filled the air. Kemel was right; it did sound like a harmony. Quinn smiled.

"Janley, double check that we're hearing the correct audio reply and not some Cylon signal."

"Already have sir, it's a genuine response to the settings the Mayor gave us."

"Good." Quinn picked up the handset. "Bragen, it's your show now."

- I - I - I -

Out of the forward opening of the port flight pod, six raptors picked up speed and headed into the dense gas of Zeus' upper atmosphere. Seconds later, they jumped away.

- I - I - I -

Misfire entered the pilot briefing room with a clipboard and a disappointed look on her face. Inside, Snowball , Maze and Bottleneck sat waiting, and stood to attention when they saw Valmar.

"Sit down" she said. They sat back down as she stood behind the podium.

"I don't know who trained you before I came along but clearly he had a limb missing. Some of those maneuvers out there were sloppy, poorly conceived and downright dangerous. Now, we haven't got any simulators on board so we're gonna have to do it live. Again."

"Sir…" began Maze, "are we really as bad as you make out? I mean, up until this I thought I was doing pretty good-"

"Want me to take you down to the hanger and show you the bird you just landed?" Valmar pulled out the clipboard. "Hydraulic failure on port landing strut. Strained compressor under starboard wing. Blown bulb on tail. Want me to continue? This is the Viper you just landed."

"That's not fair sir, you can't blame me for the bird failing it's-"

Valmar slammed the clipboard down on the podium. "Oh come on, wake up! We only have fifty two Vipers left, we're not getting any replacements. We have limited spare parts and once they run out we have to strip live birds. We have to take care of what we have."

Maze fell silent and looked to the floor. Valmar didn't like chewing out other pilots but sometimes it was necessary. Most of them were weak, Gods-fearing fools anyway.

- I - I - I -

Six tiny specks of blue sparkled briefly as the raptors appeared. Instantly they found themselves dodging smaller bits of debris from the asteroid field.

Checkmate, the pilot, was in the lead raptor, and carried Bragen, Thane and a marine. The other raptors had three people each. Checkmate took the raptor into a slow dive away from a cloud of rocks above them, and towards the source of the transmission.

"Bearing 324 carem 087, I have an asteroid five kilometres in length. Could be it." He said, moving the small ship to port to avoid another piece of rock.

"All raptors, make sure your field of debris sensors on DRADIS are at maximum. Try not to-"

Bragen stopped as a flash of light illuminated outside his window. He craned his neck round to see. "Oh frak!"

One of the trailing raptors had been hit square in the canopy by a piece of rock half its size, and was pulling it down into another field of asteroids.

"Raptor 625 is down. All raptors, keep your eyes peeled, and that means three-sixty spherical!" yelled Bragen.

The five remaining raptors cleared the last of the debris and reached relatively clear space just above the Regenesis Asteroid.

- I - I - I -

Valmar entered the hanger deck to see Snowball and Maze standing by a Viper. They instantly went silent when they saw Valmar coming.

"Cat got your tongues?" she asked.

"No sir" said Maze, acting as polite as he could.

"Good, let's keep it that way, shall we? And, for the record, I just wanna apologise for the briefing room. I don't mean to snap, things just get to me." Maze nodded and smiled. "Now, we've got a bit of time here so let's get that practice run right. I want a clean launch, hit space at full burn then watch for-"

In an instant, all lights on the hanger went dark. People murmured and yelled by surprise.

"B team, safeties, now!" yelled Lesterson through the darkness. A few seconds later back up supplies launched and the large room was filled with partial light.

- I - I - I -

In CIC, conditions were just as dark. Quinn had found a flashlight while Janley was already using her to see her console.

"Sir, blackout is ship wide, all systems functioning on backups only, crucial's functioning on reserves" said Resno.

"Resno, if they can hear us, get the deck chiefs to launch Vipers" said Quinn, trying to take stock of what had happened. Above him, the row of DRADIS screens remained dark.

"Trying sir, communications is drifting in and out."

"Do what you-"

With that, the lights came back on. DRADIS spluttered, collapsed then reformed to display the image it had been showing forty five seconds earlier.

"What the frak was that?" yelled Quinn, keeping one eye on DRADIS.

"Checking sir. No sign of nuclear or EMP attack external to the ship. Must be internal."

"I want Vipers in space, now!"

- I - I - I -

"You heard the CO, let's get them moving" yelled Lesterson.

Valmar could hear the knuckle draggers complaining about some systems still being down as she leapt into her Viper. Beside her, Snowball was already being towed into his launch tube. Beyond him, Maze and Bottleneck were getting strapped in. As they were going out on a training run anyway, they were the only pilots ready to go at this instance. Behind her, three other pilots had run into the hanger and went straight for their birds.

Inside the tube, Valmar braced for the G-forces as launch control clicked the ignition.

Instantly the Viper shot out of the tube at five gees and into the golden clouds of Zeus. Valmar saw on her port side that Snowball was slightly ahead.

"Misfire Snowball, break right, I'll take left."

"Tally Misfire."

Snowball's Viper disappeared from view as Valmar banked left. Looking back at the Neptune she saw something missing.

"Misfire Neptune, where's my other birds?"

"Neptune Misfire, bad light in tube 12P, no go for launch."

_Damn_ she thought, _that was Maze… he'll be pissed_. A second later, Bottleneck shot out of the next launch tube.

"Neptune Misfire, now suffering complete failure across both flight pods."

- I - I - I -

In his Viper, Maze slammed his fists against the sides of the cockpit.

"Get this frakker moving!" he yelled.

Launch control was visible through his canopy to his right. Two technician were working the console, but were frustrated. Eventually, one of them grabbed the intercom.

"Maze, no fire, aborting take off" they said, and shut off the intercom.

"FRAAAK!" he yelled to himself.

- I - I - I -

Passing over Neptune's bow, the three Vipers flew in tight formation.

"Misfire Yellow Squad, it's just the three of us so keep it tight and watch for enemy Raiders."

"Bottleneck Misfire, Neptune's looking a bit low in the bow, isn't she?"

Valmar rolled her Viper over to see Neptune below. She had sunk lower into the clouds than she had been before. She checked her altitude readings.

"Misfire Neptune, we detect you're losing height, do you copy?"

- I - I - I -

"Copy Misfire, we are investigating" said Janley, looking over at Quinn. Quinn and Resno were already aware of the problem, gathered round Resno's console.

"The blackout took out four of the six sublight engines" said Resno, worried. "Unless we get them back we're not gonna get enough speed to keep us at this altitude. FTL is still another seventeen minutes away from re-energising so until then we're gonna sink."

"How long till the gravity well of Zeus crushes us?"

"Most likely less than seventeen minutes sir" said Resno.

"Start getting civilians to the Raptors, we might be able to save a few-"

"DRADIS contact!" yelled Janley, aware the others were preoccupied. Quinn turned to look at the screens.

Six red enemy blips appeared behind Neptune.

- I - I - I -

"Misfire Neptune, copy. Alright, Yellow Squad, on me, let's go get 'em. We're outgunned two to one so keep your wits about you."

The three Vipers looped back and over Neptune's flanks, heading for the enemy targets in the distances. Valmar spotted them dive into the clouds.

_This oughta make things interesting_ thought Valmar.

Valmar noticed DRADIS started to shimmer as she got closer.

"Misfire Yellow Squad, DRADIS is playing up, keep a sharp eye."

"Bottleneck Misfire, my DRADIS is functioning fine."

"Tally Bottleneck" said Valmar, worried that her bird was starting to fall apart on her at this crucial time.

Two Raiders broke cover and made a run for the Neptune. Snowball turned and took chase.

"Snowball Yellow squad, I've got these two" he said, pushing it to max thrust.

"Watch your six, it looks like a-"

Three more Raiders emerged from the clouds and shot after Snowball.

"Frak!" yelled Misfire, and pulled her Viper into loop. Ahead, she saw Snowball engage the two Raiders he was chasing. A direct hit on one saw it lose both wings and fall into the clouds below.

"Nice shot Snowball" she said.

"Tally Misf-AARGGGHH!"

One of the pursuing Raiders managed to catch Snowball's upper engine and strafe the fuel tanks, causing the Viper to explode.

Misfire let loose with her cannons and managed to destroy two of the Raiders but the third dived down for cover.

Bottleneck was chasing the sixth Raider through a forest of gas, the odd shot igniting pockets of hydrogen and helium.

Valmar was heading to join him when a Raider blasted out of the gases in front of him. Both ships were travelling too fast to avoid collision.

The last image Valmar had of Bottleneck was his shattered Viper spinning away into the depths of the planet. He was still alive though, thought Valmar. Not a nice way to die.

She spun her Viper around, checking DRADIS which was still fluctuating, searching for the two remaining Raiders.

Valmar looked back at the Neptune. Only her stern was now visible above the clouds, the rest had slipped away underneath. It reminded her of an old ocean liner going down under the water.

Suddenly one of the two Raiders emerged right in front of her, so she squeezed her joystick and spun her Viper, blasting away. She got it clean in the front of its nose section, a red liquid sprayed out. _Lubricant_ thought Valmar. The Raider began ducking and diving through the clouds and back into open space. _Like a wounded animal_ thought Valmar, _best put it out of its misery_.

Valmar targeted the dying Raider and gave it both barrels, blowing it into a thousand pieces.

_And then there was one_. Valmar kept her eyes peeled for the solitary Raider left.

"Come out wherever you are…" she said.

As if on cue, the Raider appeared right ahead of her, on a collision course. Valmar kicked her Viper into high gear and started firing. The Raider started firing too. Bullets started flying past Valmar's cockpit.

Valmar thought it was gonna hit. _Not like this_ she thought to herself. _I'm gonna frak your sorry_-"

A volley of weapons fire came from beside her, striking the Raider on its port wing, slicing through the main body and tearing it apart.

"Misfire to whoever you are, thanks, you saved my life out here."

"Plato Misfire, roger, always happy to help."

_Plato? There isn't a pilot on Neptune with a call sign Plato…?_

"Unidentified pilot, please state your last, over."

"Misfire, my name is Petryce Ryder, call sign Plato."

With that, a massive black Viper of unknown configuration appeared to Valmar's left.

"Well frak me" she said to herself.

- I - I - I -

Bragen and Thane led the team deep into the asteroid. After only ten minutes they'd made remarkable discoveries. The asteroid was divided into chambers, each one holding a mirror supply of each other; _for_ _redundancy_ thought Bragen. The asteroid had seven chambers hollowed out in a linear fashion; the first six being easily accessible but the seventh was closed off. Not liking a closed door, Bragen had ordered the team to try and get in; break the computer code in the first resort, nuke the door if all else fails. Thane refuted that last option, as it might damage whatever is inside.

"What do you think is in there?" said Bragen to Thane, as they both stood beside the door to the seventh chamber. Two of the more tech-savy marines crouched down at the door access panel trying to open it.

"I don't entirely know" said Thane, "but I do know almost everything Kemel said is available in the first six chambers."

"Almost everything?"

"Kemel mentioned something about an Ark. Whatever that is might be behind this door. Unless it's in reference to the passage about Adam's Ark, from the Scrolls of Pythia, the one about the humans sent to colonise new worlds from Kobol."

Bragen walked up to it, tapping it gently. "I can't imagine there would be a bunch of humans back there waiting to procreate."

The technicians let out a yell of success, and hidden servos behind the arch of the door frame started to whine.

"You got it?" said Bragen to the technicians, taking a step back and puling out his pistol.

"We think so sir" said one of them, "but it's not a standard locking code. According to the computer, this door should've been opened like the others."

Bragen frowned, then brought his pistol up as the large doors slowly began to open.

When the doors were three inches apart, the nuzzle of a rifle appeared between them and fired, taking out one of the technicians square in the chest. Bragen fired his pistol, smashing the nuzzle and, from the sound of the yell behind the door, some flesh too.

When the door was wide enough a marine leapt forward and through. Bragen quickly followed and what he saw disturbed him.

A fair-haired man lay on the ground, blood pouring from a shoulder wound. The marine put his rifle to the man's head and started to squeeze the trigger.

"No!" yelled Bragen, smacking the rifle away as the bullet hit the deck.

"Sir?" asked the confused marine.

"Don't kill him, at least not yet. Thane, get in here."

Thane came in, saw the man but Bragen waved her off, indicating the crates instead.

"Why can't we kill him sir? He shot Magner-"

"His name is Leoben, and he's a Cylon. If you shoot him, he'll alert the Cylon fleet to our location."

Bragen saw the confused look on the poor man's face. "Intel, don't worry marine, you'll be debriefed in full I promise."

On the floor, the man known as Leoben looked up in surprise.

"How did you know my name?" he said, clutching his shoulder.

"You left your name tag on" Bragen said amusingly.

"Colonel!" yelled Thane, over by one of the large crates.

Bragen ran over to meet her. "What is it?"

"He's mined the crates with explosives. We need to remove them before we can even look inside and see what they contain."

"Sergeant, check that man for a detonator!" Bragen yelled. The marines rolled the man over, while the sergeant patted Leoben down, not caring for the pain it caused his shoulder.

"Nothing sir."

"Colonel, these charges are all linked with a cord, running to each of the crates in the chamber. Maybe if we pull one it'll cut the link?" asked Thane.

"Or detonate the whole frakking lot" said Bragen. "How are the supplies going?"

"I'll check but it should be nearly done. We left our Raptor empty in case something special was in here otherwise the first four can go."

"Do it, you head back too and start unloading. Take Magner's body back with you if you can."

Thane nodded and left. Bragen walked back to Leoben and the two marines.

"Deactivate the bomb" he said to Leoben.

"There is no bomb" said Leoben. "The cables are fake, designed to delay you looking in the crates."

"Or you could be lying" said Bragen.

"Well one of us is" said Leoben, and smiled.

- I - I - I -

Valmar flew in formation with the newly arrived Viper. Both of them kept an eye on the clouds, in case any other Raiders decided to show up.

"Mind telling me where you're from? We didn't detect any other Battlestars on the way in" said Valmar, still unsure about her guest. In her cockpit, DRADIS continued to play up.

"I was aboard my Battlestar when everything went to frak. I left with my squad to take on the enemy. We lost five Battlestars straight away, some sort of jamming interference. My squad were unaffected by whatever it was. A couple of us managed to get to Zeus and hid in the clouds. These Vipers are designed for long term use, so we've been staying hidden ever since.

"You been here almost four days by yourselves? Where are the others?"

"Dead. Joey's Viper was hit bad already, then yesterday it just gave up and died. Gravity pulled him down and we couldn't get him out. Then Sanderson decided he'd had enough and put a pistol in his mouth. Now I'm alone."

"Well not anymore" said Valmar, trying to sound cheerful. "Our Battlestar survived, and isn't too far from here. I'll send you the-"

DRADIS let out a screech. Four more red dots appeared.

"Bad guys are back. Feel up to another fight?"

Plato sounded excited. "Bet you I can bag more than you."

Valmar smiled. "You're on."

Both Vipers dived into the clouds and out of sight. A short distance away, four Raiders were flying in formation, scanning left and right for targets. Out of the clouds below them, a volley of bullet fire took out the leading two Raiders, as two Vipers sprung from the orange sea. The two remaining Raiders split off from each other so Valmar went after one, Plato the other. Valmar ducked and dived after her prey, who was intent on making Valmar work for her bounty. Finally, a random shot clipped the wing of the Raider and sent it trailing off into the clouds.

"I winged him, not sure if he's dead or not. Maybe-"

A volley of weapons fire flew past Valmar's window. On DRADIS, she could see the remaining Raider right behind her, Plato hot on it's tail.

"Frak it Plato, take it out!" she yelled.

"Stand by Misfire, I've got a few surprises up my sleeve."

Valmar put her Viper in a wide arcing turn, so she could see both ships behind her. She saw Plato's Viper, which she assumed must be a prototype, maybe a MK VIII, open a bay door below the fuselage. A green tipped missile streaked out after the Raider. It lost interest in pursuing Valmar and tried to evade the missile. After a sharp sudden dive, the missile flew past it.

"Better luck next time, Plato" said Valmar, grinning.

"That wasn't my sleeve trick!" said Plato back to her.

Valmar watched as the missile turned and began following the Raider again. Again the Raider managed to evade it, but each time the missile turned to get it.

"It's got a three minute fuel supply and one hell of a homing beacon" said Plato, as the missile again hounded the poor Raider. Finally, after the Raider made a fatal error, the missile slammed into its starboard engine and blew the small craft to pieces.

"Nice shooting… two a piece then" said Valmar.

Plato pulled her Viper alongside Valmar's. "Two-one, plus one unaccounted for more like" said Plato.

"If you're gonna be like that I might leave your sorry ass out here!"

"Hey! I've still got three pigeon missles left ya know!"

Valmar liked Plato. She would make for an excellent companion back on Neptune.

- I - I - I -

"Sitrep" asked Quinn, still keeping one eye on DRADIS.

"Still no FTL, and we've started to accelerate" said Resno. "The two sublights and all the RCS thrusters are no match for this planet's gravity. We've also had reports of buckling on the outer hull, mainly from missile impact locations."

"How bad are we looking?"

"We've got an estimated five minutes until we hit the flat line. After that, I can't guarantee the ship's strengthened hull will survive much longer."

Quinn's thoughts went back to the morning's conversation with Janley regarding the Dyson conduits. If one of the receptor plates on the outer hull go, the entire ship would implode.

"Come on Hopper…"

- I - I - I -

Bragen knelt down beside Leoben.

"I'm not one for games, so you better come clean. What's in those crates and is it worth me staying here to deal with them?

Leoben smiled again. "It's up to you. If I put a sign on something that read 'don't open this door', it's human nature to instantly try and open it. You're curious animals."

Bragen studied him. He knew Cylons were cunning, most of them were liars. This one was particularly nasty.

"Thane to Bragen, we're clearing the hanger… now."

Bragen didn't acknowledge. He simply got up and went over to the nearest crate, and pulled the pin.

The two marines shielded themselves but Leoben just stayed still.

"There are twelve models of Cylon" Bragen told the two marines. "This one is a compulsive liar."

If Leoben was surprised he didn't show it. "You continue to amaze me with your knowledge" he said.

Bragen smiled and opened a crate. Inside were boxes about the size of a suitcase. Bragen took one out and opened it.

Inside were hundreds of tiny vials. He picked one out and held it up.

"Sagitarron Water Mouse" he said to himself, not bothering to translate the original Kobolese name for it.

"What are they sir?" asked a marine.

"DNA shots. Each one contains a different animal. The whole purpose of this asteroid was so we could begin again, but that didn't mean solely humans. These cases contain DNA samples of every single known species on the twelve colonies."

"Sir, we can't ship them all back on a single Raptor" said the marine.

"No… but I imagine we have another ship here we can use" said Bragen, looking down at Leoben. Leoben didn't flinch. _This one is a cool customer_ thought Bragen.

"Sergeant, grab the Aquarian and Aerilon boxes and load them into the Raptor, as many as you can fit. They seem to be labeled so don't double up, one box each should suffice. We'll handle the crates."

"Why Aerilon?"

"Have you ever tried an Ariel Steak Burger?"

- I - I - I -

Valmar and Plato arrived back to the rendezvous coordinates to find nothing but cloud.

"Where is she?" asked Plato.

"She suffered a blackout as we arrived. It's conceivable she's either still falling or managed to jump to another location. Don't worry, I know Quinn, he wouldn't leave us here."

"This Quinn sounds like a good man. I knew a man called Quinn once. One hell of a lover."

Valmar smiled. She missed having a female companion to talk to properly. Janley was nice but her array of childhood teddy bears in her quarters made for awkward viewing.

"Commander Quinn would be happy to bring you aboard. He's single… and I guess kinda cute."

Talking about boys made her feel sixteen again. She laughed it off.

"What's his first name?"

"Er… Benjamin I think-"

"Frak! Benjamin Quinn is your CO? As in from Aquaria?"

Valmar felt her neck hairs stand up. "Yeah, that's him. Is that your Quinn?"

"Yes! We were engaged to be married! Then the reshuffle happened and Quinn followed Nellis to the Neptune and left me on the Solaria."

Valmar smiled. "I think you guys will be happily reunited."

DRADIS started screaming again. Something was approaching fast to her right.

"Petryce!"

The Raider with the damaged wing burst from a cloud bank and fired, shattering the tail of Plato's Viper. Fuel lines ruptured and fire poured from the rear of the Viper.

"No!" screamed Valmar, and fired at the raider, destroying it completely.

She turned her attention to the other Viper, which was starting to fall below the clouds.

"I knew this would frakking happen" said Plato.

"Petryce, eject and I'll catch you" said Valmar, knowing how futile the suggestion was. Plato's Viper suffered a small explosion, losing a strip of metal across her starboard wing.

"I think it's time you and I parted company. It was fun, but all good things must come to an end I guess."

"Don't say that Petryce, there's still time. Frak it, where are you Neptune?"

Petryce's Viper fell dangerously low to the cloud cover.

"Listen to me Valmar, and listen good" began Petryce. "Everything is gonna be alright. The future is bright, trust me. All this darkness will soon fade away."

"Petryce, what do you-"

"Promise me something, promise me you'll give Quinn a message from me."

Valmar thought. She could argue some more, try and save her, but she knew it would all be pointless.

"I promise."

Valmar listened to her headset, trying to hear what Petryce was saying. It sounded odd. A short message, and didn't really make sense. "Petryce, please repeat your last, I didn't quite-"

On DRADIS, Petryce's signal vanished.

Valmar couldn't help but shed a tear. She'd met a true friend, and now she was gone. As she turned, there was no trace of debris, no fire, nothing. Petryce had vanished from the world as quickly as she arrived.

At that moment, Valmar's malfunctioning DRADIS suddenly cleared itself. A large unidentified object was above her, a few kilometres away.

"Neptune Misfire, need a lift?"

Valmar couldn't believe it; was that Janley's voice. Valmar set her Viper to maximum thrust and took her out of the clouds. In orbit in front of her was the Neptune, slightly damaged but intact.

"Roger Neptune, I see you. Coming home…"

- I - I - I -

As soon as Quinn heard that Bragen had touched down in the flight pod complete with captured Cylon vessel and another humanoid Cylon, he ordered the ship to jump. Once at the safe coordinates, he had a decision to make. In his hands was a list of jump coordinates and possible targets to try once they had completed their objectives. Resno had a copy, and was slowly working through the list.

"Anywhere in particular sir?" he said, going down the list. "I've always wanted to see the Gamorian Nebula up close."

"We're not leaving yet. There's one more thing I need to do. I have a job for you. Take a squad of marines with you and head down to the port flight pod and greet our new prisoner."

"Am I taking him to the brig sir?" asked Resno.

"Not exactly. There's something else I need you to do."

- I - I - I -

In the starboard pod, Bragen and the marines were leaving their captured Cylon transport, complete with new prisoner.

"Nice job team" said Resno, walking towards them.

"Thanks" said Bragen, "but seriously, I'm sick of getting caught by Cylons all the time. At least we managed to catch this one first."

"Marines" yelled Resno, and six soldiers ran forward, weapons pointed at Leoben.

"What the frak is this?" asked Bragen.

"Commander's orders. This Cylon is to be shot." The marines took aim as everyone cleared the deck. Deck crew and pilots stood around and watched.

"Seriously, Resno, what the hell?" yelled Bragen. "You're just gonna do him here?"

"Yeah… for morale."

Bragen shook his head and took a step backwards in disbelief. Finally he turned, not wanting to watch what was about to happen. As he reached the hatch he put his hand on the wheel to cycle it, the sound of gunfire was heard behind him, and Leoben slumped to the floor.

- I - I - I -

As Valmar climbed down the ladder from her cockpit in the port flight pod, she was greeted by Lesterson.

"Thought we'd lost you out there." He gave her a hug. "Glad you're safe."

She pulled away. "Thanks… where's the Commander, I need to see him right away."

"He's in CIC, but-"

Valmar pushed past him and made for the exit.

She glanced over her shoulder. "Oh and I need the gun camera and all recording equipment pulled from that bird. It's very important." With that, she left.

- I - I - I -

In CIC, Quinn was looking over reports when Bragen entered.

"What kind of frakking order was that?" he screamed at Quinn, who barely looked up from his notes.

"We already have a Cylon on board. We don't need two-"

"Not that! Why shoot him dead in front of everyone on the flight deck?"

Quinn finally put the notes down. "To show everyone what kind of war we're dealing with. As we speak, images of known Cylons are being distributed amongst the people on this ship. If there are any on board, they'll soon be found."

"What about Simon?"

"His image will be kept secret for the time being. Should he continue on his path of helping us he may be allowed back into out community-"

"You say that… after what you just did? They'll tear him to shreds the moment he steps out. Some people know. People with guns. They won't like it, you'll have a mutiny on your hands-"

Quinn stepped up to him with intensity Bragen hadn't yet seen. "I am trying to keep the ship together but also thinking about the future of humanity. If I think a Cylon would help out then that's what we'll do."

"Sir!"

Quinn and Bragen turned, seeing Valmar rush into the room, out of breath. "I have to speak with you."

"It'll have to wait Major, I'm-"

Bragen held up his arms. "It's OK, really… we're done here." And walked from the room.

Quinn turned to Valmar, and put his papers down. "Aright Major, you've got my full attention. What is it?"

"Petryce Ryder sir."

Quinn went stock-still. "What about her?" he said calmly.

"I think we should discuss this in private."

- I - I - I -

In his quarters, Quinn was sitting down, a drink in both hands, trying to comprehend the story he'd just heard.

"I'm sorry sir… if I could explain it any other way I would but-"

Quinn held up a hand, and she fell silent.

"It's OK… it's just… she was dead… the report said she died defending the Solaria… not to mention anything about a Viper MKVIII."

"Sir, I read about them, had them engrained in my mind. I know what I saw. I requested all the logs be sent here so hopefully-"

There was a knock at the door and Lesterson entered. He looked a little upset.

"Sorry Valmar" he said, put the logs on the table, handed he report to Quinn then left.

"What does it say?" asked Valmar, confused.

Quinn read it, then looked at Valmar. "Nothing… it says…. Nothing."

"What? Let me see that!" She took it from his hands as politely as possible. The report was right. Valmar's gun camera footage showed no sign of any Viper, nor did it show Valmar had engaged any Vipers after the initial attack. Her report of being saved by Petryce showed the last Raider had actually been destroyed by Valmar herself during their game of chicken. Audio logs for the incident also came up blank.

"I don't understand… I saw her… heard her… she was real."

"I've had enough" said Quinn standing. His body language showed Valmar it was time to leave. Valmar put the report back down and walked to the door.

"Sir…" she said carefully. "She asked me to give you a message, said you'll know what it meant."

Quinn faced away from her, closing his eyes. "What?"

"Seek the Angel, blood before salvation."

Quinn turned. "That means absolutely nothing to me, Major. Nothing at all."

Valmar nodded, and took her shattered self out of the room.

- I - I - I -

In the corridor, Resno rounded a corner and almost bumped into Valmer heading the other way.

"Everything alright?" he asked.

"Get the frak away from me" she said, and disappeared down the corridor. Resno watched her go, then turned and entered a cabin.

Janley was laying on the bed wearing a fluffy nightie. Her room was decorated with posters of rock bands and talent-reality-show contestants. On her bed was a row of eight teddy bears all sitting up watching Janley read a book.

"You took your time" said Janley, folding the book over and rolling onto her back. Resno jumped on top of her and shoved his tongue down her throat. After a few seconds Janley pushed away.

"Air… I need air" she said as Resno ripped off her nightie. "Hey don't damage that, it'll be embarrassing to get it fixed-"

Resno pushed her back onto the bed as he removed his own shirt. He couldn't help himself. Normally they would take it slow and gentle, but after his little encounter in the corridor, he had other things on his mind.

_Gods she was gorgeous_ he thought as he and Janley made love. He had been warned by friends and family not to fall for a pilot, but that red hair…

- I - I - I -

In his quarters after dinner, Quinn was onto another glass of whiskey when he heard a knock at the door. He walked past the map of Aquaria hanging on the wall near his bed.

_Must stop drinking this_ he thought to himself, putting the bottle down.

Opening the door Quinn was surprised to see Captain Jacobs, formerly of the DeepFreeze.

"Captain, what an unexpected pleasure, come in."

"Thanks boss" said Jacobs, and entered. Quinn motions him to the couch but he politely refused.

"Oh no sir, I just wanted to come see ya and tell ya something I keep hearin' round the ship."

Quinn shrugged, and folded his arms. "I'm listening."

"Well, it's about Colonel Bragen, boss. It's his story."

"Story?" Quinn was intrigued. Maybe the whiskey was taking effect.

"Yeah, about him getting on me ship. It's all bollocks, boss."

"Go on."

"Well I keeps hearin' stories about his wife and kid saying goodbye to him, then getting killed as we escaped."

"What are you saying...?" Quinn unfolded his arms and stood to his full height.

"It's not true. I mean he yells to them to get on board, they run up the plank but just before they enter he slams the door shut in their faces."

Quinn couldn't believe what he was hearing. The same man that helped them escape the colonies, rescue Poseidon survivors and save the crew of the Aegean wouldn't simply kill his family. _Would he?_

Jacobs continued. "He just came in, shut the door and triggered the FTL. Saved our arses, I mean in doin' so we lost a few men but his actions saved the ship. I don't know where this story about him bein' a sob story comes into it."

Quinn realised he was in a deep thought for a few seconds before snapping out of it. "Thank you... er, Mr Jacobs, that's very helpful."

Quinn ushered him to the door, where he said goodnight and shut the door. Turning back to face the room, an air of uncertainty fell over him. He crossed to a table and picked up a report from the day's activities aboard the Aegean.

It was signed by Daniel Bragen.

"Who are you...?" Quinn said to himself, as he threw the report on the table, and went back to his bottle to have another drink.

_**END OF DAY FOUR**_


	5. DAY FIVE

**NEPTUNE'S ****LEGACY**

_**DAY FIVE – WHEN ALL HAVE FALLEN**_

"Cyrano and Son" said Resno, looking around the room to see what reaction he got.

Judging by the 'mmm's and 'ah's most people remembered it.

Resno had been in the pilot's Mess Hall for almost an hour now, and had only been there to drop something off and grab a small bite to eat. But a random conversation with one of the pilots had lead to an engaging discussion about old tv shows and movies, and, in turn, everyone suggested something which brought back instant memories - or complete blanks - from everyone in the room.

"That was an excellent cop show" said Maze, as he finished the last of his breakfast.

"Does anyone remember" began Showtime, an older pilot near the back, "the Sinking of the Wahine? It was a vidMovie that played last year to mark the thirtieth anniversary. Anyone?"

Not many people reacted. Resno felt sorry for those that had favourites that didn't get a decent reply, but to be fair it couldn't be helped.

Valmar entered and began preparing her meal, and noticed everyone gathered around a central table.

"What's all this then?" she asked, pulling up a chair nearby.

"Just going over some old celluloid, video and audio memories from the colonies" said Resno.

"What's the point?" said Valmar, scratching the back of her arm. Everyone in the room went quiet.

For a full fifty eight minutes, Resno had dreaded anyone coming in and killing the conversation with a comment like that. Everyone knew the colonies were gone. That the shows and movies they had just been discussing would probably never be seen again (although Resno had managed to secure a great deal of files from the Aegean's servers, so at least some of his favourites would be kept for posterity).

A couple of the pilots got up and left, most of them turned around and went back to their meals. Resno got up and moved to sit by Valmar.

"Was that necessary?" he asked. She downed a couple of mouthfuls of muesli without making eye contact.

"Didn't mean to spoil your discussion group, but we need to think of the future, not the past."

Resno was gonna push it but then he thought he saw a tear fall into her bowl. He got up and headed for the door.

- I - I - I -

Half an hour later, Resno was enjoying a hot shower in the deserted private locker room. He had been given a late start to his shift by Quinn as thanks for the longs hours over the past four days, so after breakfast he knew he had to have a shower. At least, that's what everyone else had told him.

The hot water dripped down his face as he pressed his forehead against the ceramic tiles lining his cubicle. Despite being away from his post, he couldn't help but take his mind off work.

_It's getting so hard_ he thought to himself. He had a tough fascade but was still inexperienced. Much of what he did was off the cuff. He knew one day he would trip and fail Just hopefully not today-

The door to his cubicle burst open, pulling him out of his thoughts. There, stark naked, was Alex Valmar. She entered the cubicle and shut the door behind her, the allowed the water to fall over her firmly toned body and running it through her long red hair.

Resno stood there staring, not being able to help himself. After Valmar had completely got herself wet she grabbed Resno by the shoulders and threw him against the wall of the cubicle, kissing him passionately.

"Wha- mff-" began Resno, but she kissed him again.

"Don't speak" she said, briefly pulling away for air.

_Yup_, Resno thought to himself, _things are getting hard_.

- I - I - I -

Resno walked into CIC a happy man. Janley noted his attitude.

"Morning sailor. You look happy…?"

Resno smiled at her. "Why shoudn't I be?"

"Oh you know, the genocide of humanity, the unknown future, y'know, that old chestnut."

Resno sat at his station, relieving the early morning shift officer.

"Oh… had a good start this morning."

"Really? I heard Valmar shot down your little trip down memory lane at breakfast."

"She… apologised."

Janley smiled. "Good. Ah well, you haven't missed much. The Commander's plotting a course out of the solar system and into unknown space."

"Sad but… about time. We need to start making plans about our future."

Janley draged her cable from her headset over her console as she walked down to Resno's level.

"About that. Have you thought about… our future?"

Resno went quiet. "No, I haven't. But… the options are there."

He smiled. Janley smiled back, then turned and went back to her console. Resno turned and watched the DRADIS screen in front of him, but was hardly focusing on it.

Since the second day of the attacks, after the Poseiden incident, Resno and Janley had been quietly seeing each other. After the dinner in her quarters, Resno and stayed behind to comfort her. During the meal, conversation had drifted over the fall of the colonies and what it meant for future survival of the species – and the thought had simply terrified her. Resno had stayed, one thing led to another and now they were, according to Janley, going steady.

Unfortunately Resno only had eyes for Valmar. He'd managed to sit next to her at the dinner and had become simply infatuated with her. She wasn't that interested, but this morning was something else entirely. Sure it was mostly likely just sex, blowing off steam so to speak, but it was amazing sex. Janley always wanted to be held, always wanted it to be gentle.

At least Valmar had tried to push his skull through the wall.

- I - I - I -

Quinn was troubled. He was so troubled he decided to take his troubles to the last man he expected to see this morning.

"Good morning Commander" said Simon, as Quinn walked into the cell. "You look worried."

"Of course I'm worried. I keep thinking my EXO is a Cylon and my CAG is seeing ghosts."

Simon looked shocked, but remained calm. "Of your CAG I can't help you, but I can assure you Colonel Bragen isn't a Cylon. He doesn't resemble anyone in our hall of fame."

"But you said yourself you only know of seven Cylon models. What if he's one of the unknown five?"

"It's possible, but I have no frame of reference."

Quinn leaned closer. "So how do we test? Aren't you the medical one?"

Simon smiled. "Yes, I am. There's a simple test to do, and it can be very accurate."

"I'm listening" said Quinn.

"Ask him."

Quinn laughed, _actually_ _laughed_ with a Cylon.

"Somehow I doubt he'd reply. He may not know he's a Cylon. Didn't you say in one of your debriefs there's a sleeper program?"

"Yes, but only for the seven Cylons we know of. I have no idea how the others operate. I don't even know what they think of the war itself."

Quinn stood, sliding his chair back under the table. "Thank you. Simon... when all this is over, and we're a long way from Colonial space... I might consider letting you out of this cell. You've proven yourself to be a valuable asset and definitely a sympathiser for our side. I don't see need to keep you locked up anymore."

"I appreciate that. It would be handy to keep my identity a secret however, I'm sure I would be the target of many angry humans."

Quinn nodded. "Only a few know, and I plan on keeping it that way."

- I - I - I -

"He's leaving."

"How do you know?" said Blue-Cavil. Red-Cavil was standing on a water-console with his hand in it.

"I've picked up over a dozen Raptors arriving and leaving at various points. All other surviving Battlestars are out of range or otherwise preoccupied. It has to be the Neptune."

Blue-Cavil joined his brother on the other side of the console and put his own hand in.

"Doesn't necessarily mean they're leaving. He could be planning another strike."

"With what? He has no more civilian ships left to throw at us, one of the number two's confirmed that for us last night. And he won't use Raptors as they're too valuable to him. No… he's making one last sweep before he leaves."

"You think he's looking for more survivors?"

"Yes" said Red-Cavil, taking his hand out of the water and wiping it with a towel. "He needs to make sure he leaves no one behind. He's weak like that. So I've got a trap ready for him."

"What kind of- oh you mean the Pandora."

"She's ready for use. Took a while to get used to the human technology again but it'll do it's job."

Blue-Cavil removed his hand from the console. "Make sure you don't lose it. It's the only Battlestar we managed to salvage and successfully capture."

"You're an idiot brother. We don't need them. We have enough firepower with the Basestars. We only captured the frakking thing to use for an instance as such as this."

Red-Cavil walked to the door. "I'll start the attack soon. By the end of today, Daniel will be dead and the Neptune destroyed. It wil happen."

Red-Cavil walked out. Blue-Cavil was drying his hands, then threw the towel on the floor.

"It had better… for your sakes."

- I - I - I -

"As much as I agree with your desire to rescue all we can, we should just get it done and go."

Quinn was trying to be as nice to Bragen as he could, not for what he believed his EXO was, but simply because his tone wasn't helping the situation.

"The raptors have been scanning the system for the past few hours" said Quinn, looking at DRADIS as another raptor jumped back. "I want to make sure we don't miss _anyone_."

Bragen picked up the reports Quinn had just been reading. "According to this we've covered all twelve colonies, the asteroid belt, all three gas giants and the void between everything. I think we're done."

"We're done when I say we're done."

Bragen caught Resno glancing at Janley. He knew where this was going. Quinn had been behaving strangely since this morning. Their usual debrief had been postponed in favour of Qunn paying an unscheduled visit to Simon.

Simon. He had been thinking a bit about him for a while, and decided he would come out. He needed answers and only another Cylon would be able to help.

"Fine" sad Bragen. "I'll leave you to it." And turned to leave CIC.

"Where the frak do you think you're going?" yelled Quinn. Everyone in CIC went silent.

"I have a meeting with Hopper regarding those Dyson conduits" he said, and tried to leave again.

"I wasn't informed about this. You stay right here-"

"If you've got a problem with me Quinn then say it. Now. Right here and in front of the crew."

Quinn stood still, not letting the situation get the better of him. Despite being senior officer, Bragen's last statement had put the ball in his court, and whether they wanted to or not, the crew were now expecting a response.

"Leave."

Bragen turned and walked out of the doors.

"Mr Resno, begin jump prep. We're taking the ship on one last pass via Leonis, Sagitarron and Aquaria. I want to make sure we didn't miss anything."

- I - I - I -

Bragen entered the brig to find Grendel talking with another marine.

"Mr Grendel, I hve to request a favour" he said. "Can you give me five minutes alone with the prisoner?"

"Sure sir." Grendel nodded to the guard who both left. Bragen watched over his should to make sure they'd left, then walked up to the security console and disabled the monitoring logs. Hidden microphones inside the cell deactivated themselves.

As Bragen entered the cell, Simon was finishing up a small snack.

"Colonel, what an unexpected pleasure, least that's what I would say if the Commander hadn't visited me this morning."

Bragen was confused. "Quinn came here? He never told me about it."

"Why should he, after all, he has his suspicions about you."

Bragen sat down in the chair opposite Simon. "I need to know" he said.

"If you're a Cylon? As far as I know you aren't. You're not one of the primary seven Cylons."

"Then I'm an unknown" Bragen said.

"Finally convinced yourself have you? I guess that explains why you wanted to know about us a couple of days ago." Simon finished the last of his food and sat back. "If you are… does it change anything?"

"You bet your ass it does. Means I'm not human. Means I wasn't born but created. Means I may have been part of this genocide."

"The primary seven Cylons started the war. As far as we know the other Cylon had nothing to do with it-"

"Then why the frak am I here?"

"You tell me" said Simon. "Up until today we knew nothing about them. They're as mysterious as human Gods."

"Is there anyway to tell if I'm a Cylon?" asked Bragen, sounding desperate. "I mean, I had a wife and child on Leonis, was she a Cylon too?"

"Cylons can't procreate, it's one of the failings of our organic side. If your child is your genetic offspring then it would be the first recorded case, and the first case of human/Cylon reproduction."

"We tried for ages… Tara was adopted…" Bragen trailed off. Another nail in the Cylon coffin.

"If you were a Cylon then your sleeper programme would activate after a while, unless it failed. There have been reported cases. Maybe the unknown five had people hidden in the twelve colonies like we did."

Bragen looked at the ground and thought. "Could there be a civil war? Cylon vs Cylon?"

Simon laughed. "It's possible, but I find it unlikely it would happen now. The very same week the Cylons attack the colonies, the unknown five choose to make their appearance known?"

"Is there… is there anyway I can access my sleeper programme? Meditation perhaps?"

Simon nodded. "You can allow yourself to access memories extremely vividly. We call it Cylon Projection. If you think hard enough you might be able to focus on one aspect of your memory."

_Now we're getting somewhere_ thought Bragen.

"If we were to attack the Cylon Homeworld, would it be worth it? We don't have the ability to stop the entire Cylon fleet but we would like to strike a blow for human kind before we're all rendered extinct."

Simon smiled. "My apologies, the way you jump between saying 'us' and 'them' is interesting. It truly seems you have the best of both worlds.

"Please Simon, it's very important."

"Alright alright, listen. On the Cylon Homeworld we have large cities, the largest we call the Citadel. It's primary function is to receive the… 'signal', if you like, when a Cylon humanoid dies."

Bragen nodded. "You mean your resurrection technology?"

"Yes. Now, beneath the main spire is a large underground base containing, amongst other things, the original birthing tanks. There are millions of them, all mass produced and all sitting there inert, waiting for a consciousness to download into."

"So kill them and you don't have anything to resurrect into?"

"Yes- well, there are the resurrection ships and the hub which controls them all, and they all have spare bodies on them, but the main manufacturing plant is down there, and a lot of the stuff isn't replicated. If you manage to find a way to get past the blockade in orbit and nuke that city, you'll have one hell of a victory on your hands."

Bragen smiled. Now all he had to do was get a nuke down there… but how….

"Simon… you said you didn't recognise me…"

Simon nodded.

"What if I told you that the older Cylon male, what's his name…?"

"Cavil" Simon offered.

"Yeah Cavil… he did recognise me. If he knows then maybe some of the others do."

Simon was quiet, and truly shocked. "Cavil knew… that can't be possible, we're all programmed not to think or discuss the unknown five-"

"Something else as well… you mention the primary seven Cylons yet in your line up number Seven is missing. Why is that?"

"That memory has been erased from our minds as well. All I know is there _was_ a Seven in existence but his line was… extinguished."

"Why would that be I wonder…?" Bragen stood up and paced.

"I wouldn't worry yourself" said Simon, "I doubt it's-"

"Of course! That explains it! Listen, up until five days ago no one knew about humanoid Cylons, at least no one on the colonies, right? So if the Sevens died out then whatever happened occurred within the Cylon community. What if Cavil killed the Sevens? When I first met him aboard the Poseidon he said the last time he saw me he was trying to kill me. If I were a Cylon and you don't have any knowledge of the unknown five then I must be a Seven."

"The last of your line… that would make sense but why would Cavil want you dead?" asked Simon.

Bragen shrugged. "You tell me. Whatever the reason he succeeded with the exception of one… I am a Cylon…" It sounded strange to say it… but he knew it was the truth, all paths he walked down over the past week were now finally leading to the same destination.

Bragen leaned into Simon. "I have to go, I told Quinn I was visiting engineering. If Quinn comes in please _please_ don't mention anything about this to him, I need to keep this a secret as long as I can."

"Not so fast sir."

Bragen and Simon looked up. Grendel was standing in the doorway holding his rifle at them both.

Bragen held both his arms up and began walked towards the Master-at-Arms. "Grendel… listen to me-" began Bragen, but Grendel put the rifle right in his face.

"Yesterday I shot dead a Cylon in the starboard flight pod. You're telling me two Cylons got off that transport?"

"Stand down, I don't even know a hundred percent if I'm-"

Sorry, but I don't take orders from a Cylon. I'll let the Commander decide."

- I - I - I -

Netpune jumped into orbit above Aquaria.

In CIC, Quinn watched the viewscreen. The once perfect blue world was now near brown. Cloud cover shrouded about a third of the planet, and was visible didn't look appealing. The small continents were blasted to hell. He knew this wouldn't achieve anything tactical, nor would there be any survivors.

He simply had to say goodbye. Had to see it one more time.

_Whether it takes a thousand days or a thousand years, we'll come back._

"Sir, I have Mr Grendel on the line, says it's urgent" said Janley.

Quinn reached for the handset when Resno yelled.

"DRADIS contact!"

"ID?" said Quinn, instantly forgetting that Grendel was waiting, looking at DRADIS.

"Unknown as of yet, she's a long way out, but silhouette indicates too small of a Basestar."

"Action stations, set condition one throughout the ship, spool the FTL drives, jump when ready-"

"Sir!" yelled Resno, "I'm picking up colonial transponders, they might be friendly."

"Check a dozen times then check again" said Quinn, looking round the room. This is what he'd been waiting for, to find more survivors before they left Colonial space for good, but he felt nervous. Something didn't feel right.

"Sir, I'm receiving audio from the target" said Janley.

"On speakers" said Quinn.

"...I repeat, this is the Battlestar Pandora to unidentified vessel..."

"Pandora? Wasn't she on patrol near Caprica?" asked Resno.

"Yeah... she and her sisterships, Valkyrie and Yashaman..." said Quinn, trailing off, again having a worrying thought. "Get me the disaster logs from five days ago." Resno nodded.

"Give me contact" Quinn said to Janley, grabbing the handset. Janley nodded.

"Battlestar Pandora, this is Neptune actual... send recognition codes and full identification immediately."

"...Battlestar Neptune...? Thank the Gods! We thought we were all alone out here..."

Quinn listened to the woman's voice. She sounded calm and excited. He covered his mouthpiece. "Launch the alert Vipers" he whispered to Resno.

Out of the Starboard flight pod, twelve Vipers shot out, looped over Neptune's hull and towards the small Battlestar in the distance.

"Yellow Squad Misfire, stay alert, watch for enemy fighters."

In CIC, Quinn watched on DRADIS as the Vipers crossed the distance between the two Battlestars.

"Resno... what's wrong with this picture...?" Quinn asked. Resno looked up from his paperwork and looked at DRADIS.

"I don't think I get what you're meaning, sir?" he said.

"It's not what you can see, but what we can't see... can't put my finger on it..." Quinn was struggling to comprehend the image in front of him. He should be overjoyed from finding more survivors and yet something was screaming at him from the back of his mind that everything about this was wrong.

"Pandora... where are your alert Vipers?" Quinn asked.

"...we lost them all... over Caprica... been hiding in the belt until we jumped here…"

Quinn looked at Janley. Janley shook her head. _The Raptors would've found you_ Quinn thought.

Misfire could see the heavily damaged Battlestar easily now. She'd taken a hell of a beating, and Misfire was surprised it had lasted as long as it did. She had been monitoring the situation from CIC.

"Maze, take three, go left, Razorclaw, take three, go right, everyone else with me."

The twelve Vipers split into three groups, equally covering the area in front of Pandora. Misfire saw Pandora make a course correction, dropping her bow. Nothing major, but it struck her as odd.

In CIC, Quinn again looked at Janley. "Still no recognition codes sir" she said.

"Yet we have visual ID..."

"Sir" said Resno, with a sheet of paper in his hands. "Disaster report indicated last known situation with Battlestar Pandora was over Caprica, she was last seen surrounded by three Basestars, taking hit after hit. Com traffic reported their FTL was down."

"Down?" yelled Quinn, and look at DRADIS. The Vipers were almost on top of Pandora.

Misfire couldn't take her eyes off the damaged Battlestar. Her gut feeling was the same as Quinn's, and now after what Resno had said her worries were almost realised. Remembering the course correction earlier, she decided to act.

"All Vipers, weapons free, stay in formation."

Misfire dived her Viper downwards at max thrust, and getting a clear view of Pandora's underside.

Over a hundred Raiders were attached to the bottom of the ship.

"NEPTUNE MISFIRE, SHE'S CRAWLING WITH CYLONS!"

Misfire took her Viper in hard and fast, blasting seven of them before they were even able to detach. Her support wing came in behind her, taking out ones that were slowly launching.

As they cleared Pandora's hull, the Raiders found themselves entering a shooting gallery as the other Vipers joined the battle.

In CIC, Quinn was quick to act. "Defensive batteries, target the Pandora, Janley contact Misfire, get her to lead the Vipers in a defensive retreat."

Janley nodded as Quinn went back to DRADIS. There was a lot of empty space between Neptune and Pandora he thought, which would make for a poor tactical position to be in if-

DRADIS beeped as two Basestars jumped in between them.

"Frak, batteries alpha through delta, retarget and fire at the Basestars, Resno, get the remaining Vipers out there!"

Misfire watched the new arrivals with dread. Raider after raider poured out of the hive-like underside of the two enemy vessels, and suddenly they were all outnumbered.

Neptune immediately opened up with her defensive batteries, targeting the nearest Basestar and causing significant damage.

"Sir, signal from the nearest Basestar…" said Janley.

Quinn stopped and stared at her. "Let's hear it" he said, picking up the handset.

"This is Neptune actual… to whom am I speaking…?"

"My name is Cavil. I wish to speak to Colonel Daniel Bragen."

Quinn looked around the room. Bragen was still not there, and now if a Cylon was asking for him…

"I'm sorry, Colonel Bragen can't come to the phone right now, would you like to leave a-"

"Don't frak with me. I know he's there. I want to hear him as I destroy the ship from under him."

_Now the Cylons want him dead; another new twist_ thought Quinn.

- I - I - I -

Bragen felt the ship vibrate and watched Grendel watch the ceiling lights sway. He took the opportunity and grabbed the rifle, bringing his knee up into Grendel's guts. One quick punch to the face and Grendel dropped to the floor.

"Planning an escape?" asked Simon.

"Hardly" said Bragen, and went out to console in the observation room.

"I'll stay right here then" said Simon, shuffling his handcuffs.

- I - I - I -

"Sir, I have Colonel Bragen on an internal line."

Quinn nodded, and pressed a button. "Daniel, where the frak have you been, there's a Cylon wanting to talk to you?"

"Really? Does he sound old?"

Quinn was continuing to try and understand. "Yeah… why?"

"It's the same frakker from the Poseidon. Listen sir, I will explain everything, just jump the ship."

"Can't we have Vipers still stuck out there."

"Then distract the old man."

"Why do I think you have a suggestion…?"

- I - I - I -

Red-Cavil was standing at the water-console aboard the Basestar when communications were re-established.

"Sorry Cavil, I was busy" said Quinn, "Daniel sends his regards but asked me to ask you a question."

Red-Cavil couldn't believe the credulity of this human. "I don't have time for trivial pursuits Commander, I want-"

"Why did you kill the Sevens?"

Red-Cavil stopped. Other crewmembers heard the comment and looked at him. _I'll box you all later_ thought Red-Cavil.

"It was my choice. I despised them. They had no right to exist."

"It must make it really hard to learn one slipped through the cracks."

"Finally accepted it have you?"

One of the Fives altered his hand in the water-console. "Cavil, Neptune's running lights are blinking in and out of sequence."

"Having problems over there?"

"On the contrary, things are fine. Daniel is extremely smart and just figured out a way to get out of here. Remember how we took out all those Cylon ships a couple of days ago?"

Cavil watched DRADIS nervously. How could they do that? They had no other ship that could-"

- I - I - I -

A Raptor appeared right in front of the Basestar as the Vipers suddenly broke off from their targets and dived for the Neptune.

"Enjoy your resurrection, frakker" said Quinn, and nodded to Resno who sent the signal.

Outside, the Raptor detonated the nuke inside and in one blast destroyed the Basestar and broke the back of the Pandora. The remaining Basestar was hit full force by the blast and was set alight.

One by one all the Vipers followed Valmar and combat landed on the flight pods. Valmar was the last bird to land, making sure her flock got home safe, the nuclear cloud blossuming over the forward hull. She turned her Viper round facing aft when she spotted it.

The missile had been fired from the Raider before it had been taken out by flak. The warhead glowed red as it streaked in close.

"Oh Frak!" she screamed as she lifted her Viper off the deck and began firing at it.

Her shots flew past the missile, as it got closer and closer.

"Not like this!" Valmar screamed, squeezing the trigger for dear life. "Not like this, not like this, not like-"

- I - I - I -

In CIC Quinn had reached the FTL Control and helped the injured operator out of the way. He grabbed the command key, not worrying about the blind jump he was about to initialise. They had to get away from there. Fast.

He turned the key, and said a small prayer to the Gods.

- I - I - I -

"Congratulations on your promotion Admiral."

Benjamin Quinn stood in full military uniform looking over the harbour at Picon. The now-Admiral Nellis stood by the railing, having completed the mandatory photo session for publicity. The photographers were packing up their gear when Quinn managed to finally speak with his commanding officer.

"No, thank _you_, Ben. Without your help I wouldn't have made it this far."

Both men began to walk along the pier leading out to the low-lying docks for merchant and sublight cruisers. The sea breeze filled their nostrils as the hot midday sun made them hot in their dress outfits.

"Sticking with the Solaria sir?" asked Quinn.

"No… have got something better in mind" said Nellis. Quinn raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? I thought you said Solaria was the best ship in the fleet."

"It is, but there's one better. You see when you get to be as powerful and corrupt as me you get whatever you want. In twelve hours I'll have three sexy interns crawling all over me as I roll around naked in a pile of cubits."

Quinn almost threw up in his mouth. "Thank you for the mental image sir."

Nellis laughed. "What I'm getting at is I get to chose my own ship. So I picked the best. The first ship I ever served on."

"The Neptune? She's currently rusting in orbit of Sagitarron. No offense sir but do you really want a relic like that?"

"She's more than a relic. She's a friend. She saved my ass too many times in the final years of the Cylon war, so in about fifteen months time I hope to have her capable of going toe to toe with a Mercury."

Quinn smiled. "I look forward to seeing it sir."

"And the Solaria is yours. Command her as you see fit."

"With respect sir… I'd prefer to stay with you."

Nellis stopped and put his arms on the hand rail overlooking a small area for fishing. Down below, a father was congratulating his son on catching a big fish.

"You can't hide under my shadow forever" Nellis said, looking out to sea.

"I need… sir I need time to make-"

"Five years ago you helped me with a very important problem. And in turn, I have helped you with your career. The debt is paid, Ben, time to move on."

Quinn looked out to sea as well. A tug was bringing in a large ocean liner, just clearing a heads to Claris Harbour. "I'll try sir, but I'm no good. I don't do things by the book. I trust too easily. I'm just…"

He trailed off. Nellis turned and put a hand on his shoulder. "Do what you think is right. Trust your instincts. There's a reason I had you as my EXO."

- I - I - I -

Quinn felt the ship shudder as it reappeared in normal space.

"Resno, get-"

A force like the Gods themselves had just slammed into the ship caused the Neptune to lurch to starboard, throwing everyone in CIC to the floor. Quinn saw the damage control board as he hit the deck, lights along the port side went red. Most lights aft of the central column on the port flight pod were black, which meant no information could be read from them.

Which meant something very deadly just happened.

Quinn tried to stand up but the ship was still rolling. He could feel the gravity plating trying to keep its occupants vertical. Whatever hit them had knocked them off their axis.

"CIC, listen up, I want all damage control teams to assess their immediate area, go section by section, don't open any bulkheads without checking for atmos on the other side first. Resno, check with the starboard pod, I want all birds launched in a defensive pattern around us. Sitrep?"

Janley clambered to her console. "FTL down... DRADIS down... we're venting atmosphere on the port side... "

"Nep-... this... -azorclaw... -ht pod gone..."

"Resno, try and clear that up" Quinn yelled, as he helped a fallen crewmember with a broken arm to the medical teams that just arrived at CIC. Resno was at communications, trying to clean up the signal. "Lot of radiation static. We got hit by a nuke but I don't know why it did so much damage."

"...I say again, this is Razorclaw, do you copy Neptune?"

"Razorclaw this is Neptune actual, repeat your last in full." Quinn listened, as did everyone else, not sure if they wanted to hear what was coming.

"Razorclaw Neptune, copy that... I'm flying over what's left of the port flight pod... looks like the nuke went off inside."

Gasps of shock went around CIC as Quinn held up a hand of calm. "The front half of the flight pod is intact but on fire. The rear half is... gone. Hull plating on the primary hull is severely damaged in that area. Fuel lines to the ventral port sublight engine appears to be severed... we're venting fuel-"

Quinn stepped up to the combat table just as DRADIS came back online. "Resno, seal the fuel lines, get teams to cut them manually if they have to. Janley, evacuate all civilians from that area of the ship. Move them into the forward hull. And someone find me Bragen!"

Outside Razorclaw and four other Vipers were surveying the damage. Any Viper on the deck of the port flight pod would've been incinerated. The hanger below the landing deck would probably have either collapsed or been exposed to the vacuum of space. Either way, the death toll of colonial military personnel would be high.

- I - I - I -

Deep in the belly of the Neptune, Bragen and Simon were lying on the floor of Simon's cell. Bragen had returned to free his handcuffs when the blast hit them. The door was smashed open; a fallen bulkhead had taken half the door out. Bragen opened his eyes and checked the room. The lighting rig above him was swinging on two hooks instead of four, giving the light in the room an uneasy quality he could only describe as being on a sailing ship in a storm. Simon wasn't moving, but was alive. Bragen checked for Grendel. He spotted the form of lying where he fell earlier. Unfortunately a ceiling tile has pierced his chest. Bragen didn't need to check for life signs.

Bragen went back to Simon who had begun to stir. He sat up, and leaned himself back against a wall.

"What happened?" Simon asked. Bragen often wondered if stupid questions like that were only a result of making conversation, or whether the universe was conspiring to fill his life with stupid people.

"I'd say Cylon nuke at a guess. Feels a bit different from this side of the fence, huh?"

Simon looked at Bragen, who clearly wasn't in the mood to argue. Simon averted his eyes. "I'm sorry. I know it's hard for me to be here but... I am a doctor. Fours were designed as medical practitioners, amongst other things. Let me help your injured crewmembers."

Bragen thought long and hard. He knew Quinn would be grilling him about his absence anyway.

"Alright, but if you make one wrong move, you're paying a visit to resurrection town."

- I - I - I -

"Fire is spreading sir, not sure how long it can be contained."

Janley was checking in and reporting as best as she could, given the amount of communication lines she was monitoring at once. Resno was trying to pre-empt Quinn with orders, but could only do so much.

_Trust your instincts_ he heard in his head. _Not now Nellis_ he said back.

"Have all the fire supressants failed?" Quinn asked.

"Yes sir" said Resno, "damage from the shockwave took out the tanks and lines feeding them. There's simply no pressure to get the sprinklers working."

"We need another option" he said, thumping his fist on the table. As he did, his now-cold cup of coffee spilled on the map of the ship, and began to run aong the fold lines. He glanced down where the coffee ran. Right out the side of the ship.

_It can't be that frakking easy, surely_.

Quinn picked up another plan of the ship, not yet covered in coffee. He traced the line of the access ports and overlayed it where the fire was spreading.

"Janley… is what I'm looking at up to date? Is the fire in these areas only?"

Janley ran over and joined him at the table. After a few seconds she nodded.

"Yes sir, they run through most of the central hull and go-"

"That's fine. Begin closing all junctions here, here, here and here. Seal them completely. If anyone is in those sections, tell them they've got a matter of seconds to get out. Then get me whoever's left flying out there."

"Yes sir" sand ran back to her console.

"Resno, sound collision alarm. Warn the ship we're about to experience one violent decompression."

"Aye sir" said Resno, not sure what that entirely meant.

- I - I - I -

Razorclaw fly his Viper over the aft section of the starboard engineering block. "Minor damage here. Continuing on to the lower sublight engine."

"Neptune actual to any Viper still flying, please respond."

"Razorclaw Neptune, go ahead sir."

"Razorclaw, we've got a fire and we need to vent otherwise we'll burn up."

Razorclaw thought there'd be problems inside the ship. "What do you need sir?"

"If I said port side sixth junction receptor platting would you know what I was talking about?"

Razorclaw kicked his Viper into max thrust, accelerated around the bow of the crippled ship and – despite being unintentional he kept telling himself it was simply the quickest way – through the remains of the port flight pod. When he arrived at the location he was stuck. The bulge that used to take the flight pods during an FTL jump had twelve receptor plates dotted along the hull. His point of reference would've been the flight pod itself but it was gone. The numbers had been incinerated in the blast and now he had two possible candidates for which was sixth and which was seventh. Or fifth. Hitting the wrong one might decompress the wrong section and kill quite a few people.

"Sir… don't know which one it could be, I don't have time to compare-"

"Trust your instincts, son" was the reply back.

Razorclaw stared at the two plates, and decided to make a decision. He turned his bird slightly to his right and began firing at the starboard plate. It was extremely thick but concentrating on the same point should weaken it. Razorclaw looked down at his ammo counter; it was almost out. The battle and subsequent nuclear strike and left little time for a re-arm, and he had opted not to.

When he was almost out of ammunition he saw a tiny spark then a flood of golden fire spewed from a small opening.

"Yes!" he yelled. "Razorclaw Neptune, got it! You're venting fire now!"

- I - I - I -

In CIC, people cheered. Quinn always enjoyed that sound. Three times now Quinn had ordered them to try and work together and keep the noise down, but it always rose back up. This time, he let them carry on.

"Sir, remaining active sensors indicate temperature dropping all over the ship. Nice work sir."

"It was your idea Janley." When he got a puzzled look back, he smiled. "The Dyson Conduits. You said they ran all over the ship. I simply funneled the fire down them then blew the lid off."

Resno spoke while still on the phone. "Sir, I've located Colonel Bragen. He's helping tend to civilian casualties but said to give you a message."

Quinn had forgotten about him. "Go on."

"Sir... he says to say he has a Doctor Simon working with him and... everything is under control." Resno shrugged. "I didn't even know we had a Doctor Simon on board. I hope that means something, sir."

"So do I..." Quinn said.

Janley handed him another sheet. "This is the one you've been dreading, sir."

Quinn took it and glanced at the top of the paper. "Current Fatalities" he said under his breath. He didn't dare think how many were lost when the fire was extinguished.

He took it and slowly walked away from Janley, absently, reading. Janley took the hint and backed away, back to help Resno.

Quinn's eyes went through the list. He recognised some, but in the past three days he'd barely had time to do anything properly.

"Valmar... Lesterson... Hopper... Grendel..." he noted to himself. _Frak_ he thought. _Frak frak FRAK_. He turned the page. The list went on.

Resno stopped working at the sound of Valmar's name. _Never fall for a pilot_ his mother had told him. He looked back at Janley, who was upset by the news but was continuing to work.

_Why_ he thought. _Why avoid her_. She was nice to him, treated him well, and he was focusing on something else entirely, always chasing what he couldn't have.

"Janley... are these all military personnel?" asked Quinn.

She tried to compose herself but a tear had escaped. "Yes sir, they, er... they were all present on or in the port flight pod. Some were from the primary hull, mostly from radiation poisoning, but Doc Thane seems to think that-"

"Thank you lieutenant..." Quinn said, not trying to be rude. He knew he HAD to see these reports. _I didn't want to be the Commander _he told himself. Which was always followed up with _the Cylons never asked us what we wanted_. He saw the whole list but didn't see a tally.

Quinn closed his eyes. "Total?"

Janley swallowed. "One hundred forty one, sir. We're still tallying civilian casualties but West Aquaria is a mess at the moment."

Quinn moved to the combat table, rested his hands, bowed his head. _Lords of Kobol, why are you doing this to me?_

"Razorclaw Neptune, request actual."

Quinn picked up the handset. "Go ahead Razorclaw."

"I found something sir. DRADIS is clear but... sir, I don't think we're alone in this system."

After dealing with the receptor plating, Razorclaw had spun his Viper around to survey the system and watch for hostiles. _Not bad for a blind jump_ he told himself. A star burned brightly in the distance, and he could make out at least two planets just with the naked eye. A nebula nearby gave the system a light blue colour. Something on his console chirped that made him look down. He saw a spike in infrared. He strained his DRADIS in the direction is came from and picked up a new signal. It appeared for a moment, then vanished. He didn't think it was FTL; more likely it eclipsed behind what was undoubtedly a gas giant.

Whatever it was, it was artificial.

- I - I - I -

Down below Bragen and Simon were ferrying passengers through to the forward section of the ship and away from radiation pockets. Simon kept grabbing at his head, which Bragen first thought was a nervous twitch.

"You alright?"

"Yeah" said Simon "but that ringing is really annoying..."

"Ringing?" Bragen listened. Simon was right; there was a faint ringing noise echoing through the corridor.

"It's so loud..." Simon said, grabbing at both his ears. "Make it stop... MAKE IT STOP!"

Simon collapsed to the floor. Bragen quickly moved to his aide, picking him up around his shoulder and carrying him off down the corridor.

- I - I - I -

Quinn entered the medical bay just as four more patients were wheeled past him. Body bags lined the corridor as he entered, and he could see horrific radiation scarring on several patients. He just had time to see Mayor Kemel being zipped up in a body bag before being taken away and dumped outside the medical bay.

As he got past the main group of beds he spotted Bragen and Thane standing over a bed at the far end of the room. He tried to contain his anger as he walked at pace to the back of the room.

"Bragen, in case you hadn't realised the EXO of a Battlestar is particularly crucial at a time like-"

Quinn froze as he realised who the patient was.

Thane glanced at Quinn then pulled the sheet cover over Simon's dead face.

"Psychological trauma, but it didn't look related to the nuclear detonation. Had he been sick for a while?"

"No idea" said Quinn, who by now had moved to the other side of the bed, staring straight at Bragen, who hadn't yet taken his eyes off Simon.

Thane eyed the two men. "Look, I may be a Sagitarron native but I'm not stupid. Would someone tell me why the Colonel dragged me away from other crucial patients to try and save this one?"

Quinn turned to face her. "Doc, would you mind leaving us for a second. Bragen and I are about to discuss that very point."

Thane shrugged and walked off, instantly picking up the chart for another patient and began shouting orders of drugs to the two assisting nurses. Quinn turned back to Bragen, who still refused to make eye contact.

"What happened?" he asked.

Bragen stood upright, finally seeing Quinn. "He complained about the ringing noise and then collapsed. I rushed him here but Thane couldn't save him. Now you know what I know."

"That's it? No physical injury?"

"None that the Doc can find. Why, think I topped him myself?"

Quinn smiled. "You wouldn't be that stupid. For now though, we have to forget about Simon, and start thinking about ourselves. The CAG found something."

"What did she find?"

"_He_. Valmar died in the explosion; James Mason's been promoted. We've got about two dozen Vipers left."

"Frak...." Bragen said distantly. Quinn eyed him up.

"You sure you're alright. I can get the Doc to-"

"Plenty more people worth fixing ahead of me Quinn. I'm fine, just wish they'd fix that ringing noise."

Quinn stepped up to him, closer than Bragen would've liked. "I think after all this is over, you and I might have to have a little chat. I'm starting to think there's more to you than meets the eye."

"Why do you say that?" said Bragen, knowing how stupid the line was.

"Because there is no ringing noise. And as far as I know; if there is a ringing noise - only Cylons can hear it."

Back in main medical bay, a female patient was screaming. Quinn walked out and caught sight of her. He looked at Bragen, and both men moved over. Thane was dressing a nasty wound on her shoulder when Quinn steeped in to have a good look at her.

"Hey, do you mind, I'm trying to work here" said Thane, not happy.

"Doc! We need you over here!" One of the nurses in the back was having trouble with an injured engineer. Thane shoved a cloth in Quinn's hands.

"If you're so keen to be here, you can help by putting that on her shoulder to stem the bleeding."

Thane walked off in a hurry. Quinn watched her go, then to Bragen, then to the injured woman in the bed.

"Please... help me..." she said faintly.

Quinn looked back at Bragen, who took out the pistol from the back of his trousers and gave it to Quinn. He turned and put the pistol to the woman's head.

"Gladly" he said, and pulled the trigger.

The room was alarmed with shock as Quinn gave the gun back to Bragen, grudgingly. Thane raced over to see what had happened.

"What the frak are you doing?" she yelled.

"She's a Cylon. Anyone that complains of a ringing noise must be quarantined. Keep them isolated from the others."

With that, Quinn and Bragen left the room.

- I - I - I -

Resno was back at his quarters, slowly going over some paperwork. He had relieved himself and left Janley in charge as he needed to finish some valuable reports before carrying on, and the atmosphere CIC wasn't helping. He knew it wasn't proper procedure but with the ship falling apart he didn't think anyone would notice.

Resno picked up another report. It was written by Valmar. He smiled and held it for a long time before starting to read it. It detailed the events of yesterday and her mysterious encounter with what everyone was calling a ghost.

Resno was about to put it down when he flipped to the last paragraph. Upon reading the last line he stopped, and went as white as a sheet. "Frak me…" he said, and began rummaging through his stuff. He pulled a box out from under his bed, checked the contents then raced off out the door and down the corridor.

- I - I - I -

"Just so you know" Quinn began as they turned a corner, breaking the easily silence that had stayed with them ever since they'd left the medical area, "we're not having this conversation just yet, but I want you to know I don't trust you."

"Understandable" said Bragen.

"I don't know who you are or what you are but until I know otherwise I need people I can depend on."

Bragen stopped them just short of CIC. "You can trust me. I promise you first thing tomorrow I'll explain everything. Yes there have been secrets, but they were necessary, and up until today I didn't know the full truth." Bragen thought for a second. "OK maybe I still don't know the full truth, but the point is it's enough to know that I'm here to help, and if I can get it right, I'll make sure the Cylons don't bother us ever again. I know you no longer want me as your EXO, fine I get that, but until you find a replacement this crew needs unity."

With that, Bragen turned and walked off towards CIC. Quinn leaned against the wall, deep in thought. _Could I trust him? _he wondered. He began walking again, slowly, weighing up everything that had happened since the attacks. He was a military man but also a man of faith. If the Gods were watching, they needed help. And help right now.

Quinn was almost at CIC when he heard footsteps behind him. He stood in the doorway and turned.

Resno was running down the corridor towards him carrying a cardboard box.

"Sir" he said, nearly out of breath. Clearly not everyone was staying as fit as they should've. "You need to read these."

He held the box out to Quinn, who had no intention of taking it just yet.

"What are they?" he asked.

"My HisSciFi novels. I think they're part of all this. I just finished reading book eight and-"

"Part of what?" Quinn asked, wondering if the man was drunk.

"This... all of this, the future of humanity, the sermon by Father Ardrossan, the incident with Petryce, it's all coming together." He pulled himself to his full height. "It's part of the Gods plan for us."

"The Gods plan" Quinn repeated. "How can you be so sure?"

"Just a feeling, but there are parts to the story all the way through these novels that drop hints, sign posts if you will. I saw the report of what happened to Valmar yesterday, look sir, there's one passage at the end-"

Quinn took the books, if only to shut him up. "Alright alright, I'll read them, just let me-"

Resno stepped up to the Commander , so forcefully it took him by surprise. The young cadet he met all those days ago was finally an officer.

"Read the last page of book eight. You'll know it when you see it. It'll change your mind about... everything."

With that Resno stepped passed the Commander and into CIC.

- I - I - I -

"Neptune Raptor 1152, we are in position, commencing orbital sweep."

The two Raptors appeared in the skies above the gas giant, using the clouds as cover for whatever lay behind it. Six Vipers flanked them for support.

Janley listened intently as Quinn entered, Bragen following close behind. "Sitrep" he asked, if only to give Quinn a reprieve.

Janley answered. "Sir, two Raptors have just arrived in orbit and are looking for the target."

"Good" he replied. "Resno, do we know where we are yet?"

"Yes sir" he replied, fumbling with a mountain of paperwork, all of them reports that Quinn no doubt would have to read before the day was out. "We're somewhere near the spiral arm, quite a distance from the colonies. Not much out here. Some of the pilots reported seeing total darkness."

"No stars" Bragen affirmed. "Means very little chance of finding a habitable planet out here, given we have less star systems to choose from."

Quinn stepped up to the combat table and picked up the handset. "Give me direct contact."

In orbit, Checkmate and Hardball were navigating through a dense cloud of gas and dust when Quinn's transmission came through. "Checkmate this is Neptune Actual, is your wireless link still active?"

Checkmate checked his console. "Yes sir, strength at eighty, you wanna see the pretty pictures?"

Quinn smiled. Checkmate wasn't the best pilot but he was at least amusing to listen to. "By all means."

The DRADIS screen in CIC was replaced with static, which slowly formed into a swirling mess of yellow and amber gas particles dancing in front of the camera.

"Sorry 'bout this" Checkmate said, "Should be threw the worst of it right about... now."

The camera image changed from amber to darkness, then a slim prick of light from the distant star filled the lense.

Then everyone saw it. Quinn and Bragen leaned into the screens for a closer look, as if by doing so they'd have a better understanding of what the mysterious object was. In CIC everyone gathered for a look at a monitor.

"Frak me... what is that?" Quinn said absently.

"Beats me" said Bragen "but I don't wanna be sitting here doing nothing when it comes round to eating us. Action stations, set condition one throughout the ship. Launch the alert Vipers and bring the defensive batteries online."

"Resno, what's the status of the FTL? Are we gonna be able to make a quick getaway in one piece?"

It had been a few seconds before Quinn realised he hadn't been replied to. He looked over at Resno, who was staring intensely at the screen, as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Resno, didn't you hear me?"

"Sir... I... I don't believe it..." he said, dropping the rest of his reports but not caring to pick them up.

"Start talking Resno." Quinn said, not wanting to aggravate the poor kid but wondered why his reaction was different from everyone else.

Suddenly Resno realised what he was doing. "S-sir! Sorry, I... it's just... it's-"

"You recognise it, don't you" Bragen said, understanding his facial expression. Quinn was surprised by the question, but even more by Resno's answer.

"Yes sir. In fact... I'll show you why."

Resno grabbed the box of HisSciFi novels he'd given Quinn and grabbed the first book. As he did so, book eight fell out and landed in front of Quinn. Resno started flipping through the pages, while Quinn absently picked up book eight. "Where is it..." Resno said under his breath. Quinn eyed Bragen, who simply shrugged.

"Ah ha! Here it is!" Resno said, slamming the book down on the table at an open page. Quinn and Bragen looked at the book in stunned silence.

Staring back at them was the object they'd been looking at through the Raptor gun camera.

The massive, colonial-built space station, known as Elysia.

Quinn couldn't believe it. Resno was smiling ear to ear. Bragen was still staring at the screen. Quinn looked down at his hand, at the book he was holding. He flicked through it to the last page and read the passage that Resno was talking about.

It shocked him beyond everything he knew, and put goose bumps up his spine. The Gods were here. They were always here, watching them, guiding them, leading them to this very location.

He looked at Resno. "Told you, sir" Resno said respectfully.

Quinn looked back at the passage, tears forming in his eyes, and read it again to be sure.

'_Seek the Angel, blood before salvation_'.

_**END OF DAY FIVE**_


	6. DAY SIX

**NEPTUNE'S ****LEGACY**

_**DAY SIX – DELIVERANCE**_

Quinn staggered into the bathroom and looked at the face in the mirror.

_Gods I hate myself_ he thought.

It had only been a few hours since the discovery of the Colonial space station known as Elysia. She had survived her FTL accident over eighty years ago, and was now sitting in orbit of a gas giant in a very distant star system. Communication hails went unanswered, so Quinn had relieved the command staff in favour of the night crew and told everyone to get some rest, but before sending Raptors in for a closer look. Naturally he had returned to his quarters and climbed into a bottle.

Now he was drunk again, the fifth time this week, and given how he was feeling, no doubt the worst of them. He had entered his bathroom and realized he'd hardly been in here since joining the Neptune. There was a reason he told himself.

"And you call yourself a Commander…"

Quinn looked straight at the mirror. His reflection had folded his arms, staring back at him.

"You look a right frakking state" said his reflection.

"Frak off… I don't need you at the moment" said Quinn, holding onto the basin to stop the room from spinning.

"Like it or not, I'm here every time you drink. I think you need to stop drinking."

"Easily taken care of… this is the last bottle in the universe" Quinn said, waving a bottle of whiskey with only a few mouthfuls left.

"You disgust me, Benjamin. You have the opportunity to shape the future of humanity and here you are simply trying to prevent seeing your own reflection. Ask yourself, in a thousand years time, who is history gonna remember; you or me?"

Quinn hunched over the toilet and threw up his dinner. His reflection just stood there and laughed at him.

"I must say I'm impressed" his reflection said, "I only get to come out and play when you're really trashed. There were traces of me yesterday when we decided to go on one nostalgic trip through the colonies on our way out of the system… look how that turned out-"

"Shut up…" said Quinn, standing to face his reflection.

"Or destroying all the civilian ships without leaving one intact… the Aegean would've been handy to have around yesterday-"

"I said shut up" said Quinn, holding his bottle tightly.

"I think the best part was on the first day of the attacks… you snuck back here for a couple of quick shots and ended up hiring a Cylon for a-"

Quinn brought the bottle up fast and smashed the mirror, covering himself with shards of glass and splashes of whiskey. He looked at himself for a few seconds in the hundreds of distorted images the mirror was now throwing back at him… each one frowning in shame.

"They all know it Benjamin… they all know you're a drunk" said the gestalt image. "You have to change… you have to adapt… it all comes down to faith."

Quinn left the bathroom and went back to his quarters. The map of Aquaria caught his eye. He stared at it for ages, wiping the blood, glass and alcohol off his right arm.

"It all comes down to faith…" he said to himself.

- I - I - I -

Five hours later, Quinn was sitting up in bed, surrounded by paperwork. He'd be awake for a couple of hours, all notion of trying to get back to sleep lost. The events of the past twenty four hours had left the entire crew in a state of flux, and the future of what was left of the human race was apparently in his hands.

And in his hands at that very moment, was a comic book.

After his incident with the mirror, Quinn had ventured down to the medical bay, dodging the rows of bdy bags still lining the corridors and helped himself to a few NightKiller tablets. They seemed to do the trick after his frequent drinking sessions. Then he visited Janley's quarters and kicked Resno out of bed and onto a Raptor, putting him in charge of the Elysia 'project'. Finally he decided to get some sleep.

Quinn was finishing up his second pass at "Star Angel", the first of the eight-part series of HisSciFi novels that Resno had loaned him - on the proviso that they not get damaged. As farfetched as the concept was, Quinn – and an enthusiastic Resno – considered using the novels as a basis for understanding Elysia.

The novel wasn't written very well, Quinn thought to himself. It was short, only eighty eight pages long, but the opening three chapters did explain everything he wanted to know about the massive vessel floating just a few hundred kilometres away from him, beyond the bulkheads of the Neptune.

She abruptly left Aquaria eighty years ago, a victim of poor yet still experimental FTL maintenance according to the novel, with a crew of 4,397 people on board. The station was massive, nearly nine kilometres long. The central cylindrical hub rotated to give artificial gravity for those living on the inside – or rather, the inner wall of the cylinder - and thus use less power than would normally be required. From that, the hub was flanked with massive solar arrays sweeping back to the rear of the vessel that housed the reactor and fuel pods. The arrays were arranged in such a way that they resembled wings, and the whole structure with its wide aft section gave the whole vessel an appearance of an angel – a 'star angel' to be precise.

The rest of the novel spoke of distrust between the Aquaria colonists, the Aquarian government and the System Council – the old inter-colony government before the Quorum of Twelve were formed – who didn't sanction the building of such a massive craft, especially as it was built in secret. They built it out of fear, that one day technology would run amuck in the colonies and mankind would face annihilation.

_How ironic_ thought Quinn.

He put the book down and was just about to start reading part two, "A Distant Star", when the door chime went. Quinn got up to answer it and was surprised to find Bragen standing on the far side. "Come in" he said with concern.

Bragen sat down opposite Quinn and looked at the pile of seven books, and the one in Quinn's hands, and smiled. "Not you too. Those things are for nerds."

"Normally I would agree with you Daniel, but given what we found here today, things just became interesting, so I want to be prepared. Even if that means reading-"

"Kids stories" Bragen finished, and smiled.

Quinn didn't return the smile, instead gently put the book down on the table and looked back at his EXO. He allowed for an uneasy silence between them.

"Thane said she had two more people come in with splitting headaches, a tall brunette and a rather attractive blonde woman" said Bragen. "Both died overnight."

"Who are you?" Quinn said, hoping for a straight answer.

"Sorry, I don't have any comic books with my back history in them but-"

"No more games Bragen." Quinn said, leaning forward. "I need to know you're someone I can trust."

"I am, believe me. First, yes – I did have an unauthorised conversation with Simon."

"Why?"

"Because I needed to. And the answer to your next question is yes – I wouldn't have said anything had we not lost the flight pod and all hell broke loose. On top of that... the ringing noise is just killing me."

Quinn had a gun hidden behind his cushion. He knew Bragen would be coming and wanted to be prepared. "You should get that looked at."

"No need, I don't plan on being here long. I came here to say goodbye, and ask that I borrow a Raptor briefly."

Quinn laughed. "Anything else you want while you're making requests?"

"Yes. I want the Neptune and all of her remaining nuclear warheads."

Quinn's smile slowly vanished. Bragen wasn't joking. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Yes. Look at this ship, Quinn. She's been mortally wounded. She won't last that long in a fight, not with all the structural damage she's taken. Besides, Resno thinks we're gonna get maybe half a dozen jumps out of the engines before they die."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Use the Elysia. We're getting power readings from her so she's still functional. There's your way out."

"And what about you? It wouldn't be wise to let a Cylon have a Battlestar filled with nukes would it...?"

Bragen smiled. "Yes, it would appear I'm a Cylon, but a very special Cylon. Simon didn't recognise me, but Cavil did. Whatever Cavil had against this line of 'Seven' Cylon has made me unique. Thanks to what I gleamed from Simon, I think I know a way we can strike a blow for human kind."

"You have a plan in mind. Sounds good, but I think it would be better if we included all the-"

"It's a suicide run. I won't be coming back."

Quinn stopped and stared at him. "Oh."

"I need this ship to get where I need to go, then I'll die. You'll never have to look at my ugly mug again. In the meantime this noise is literally gonna kill me if I stay here too long, so I need to go. I'll be waiting in a raptor at the edge of the system, unless you have any objections. I'll only have so much air, so please don't wait too long."

"Why throw away your life?"

"In war you make sacrifices. Isn't that what you once said?"

Bragen stood up and headed for the door. Quinn thought again about the pistol nearby. He stood up.

"Why?"

Bragen stopped and turned back to him. "Why what?"

"Why fight your own people? If you're a Cylon why aren't you trying to kill us?"

"Simon didn't wanna hurt humans either, and up until a few days ago I thought I was human. Why should I suddenly change now?"

Bragen stepped up to Quinn until they were face to face. "It's all down to faith. You had enough faith in me to make me your EXO. You didn't have to, especially when Nelson came on the scene. But now we're at a crossroads. This solar system may very well contain the last of the human race. That nebula out there is pumping out some serious radiation which is playing havoc with... well, whatever the hell's in my head, so I have to go. Another thing is that Cylon transport we nicked off Leoben. All the electronics are dead inside. Whatever is killing the Cylon humans is seriously knackering their technology too. Look at it this way... as long as you stay here no Cylon will ever set foot in this system."

Bragen had a very good point, Quinn thought. The entire Cylon army was after them, but here they couldn't be touched. Bragen moved to the door again.

"You and I won't see each other again. Oh and you probably should've picked a better hiding place; that pistol was very easy to spot."

Quinn glanced back at the couch, then to Bragen. He stepped forward and put a hand on the door, closing it with Bragen inside.

"I have faith. Tell me what's on your mind."

- I - I - I -

Resno was about to embark on the greatest mission of his young life. A few metres away, on the other side of the hatch, was something he'd wanted to step foot on since he was eleven years old. He put his hand on the wheel of the hatch and took a mental breath. Behind him, one of the marines grunted.

"Can we move this along sir?"

Resno knew he'd only be able to step onto the Elysia for the first time once. He cycled the lock and stepped through.

In front of him stood the grand staircase, the majestic walkway leading up to one of the 'higher' levels. There were eight staircases in total, all doted around the forward section of the station at each of the eight primary airlocks. Resno remember seeing politicians and celebrities standing on them in old photos from the era. Now he had the opportunity to walk on them himself in a graceful and historic-

"Second team online, check the upper level, move!"

Four marines burst past Resno and ran up the stairs. _So much for history_ thought Resno.

The next hour was spent combing the cabins and workspaces of the forward section, all the while slowly pressing back towards the habitation ring. The cabins looked like they hadn't been occupied in years. Dust and cobwebs lined some areas of the stations, while in another one marine found the remains of a dog, long since stripped of flesh. None of this worried Resno; he knew where everyone would be.

The small cylindrical worldlet rotated to give artificial gravity and much of the rear section was a large open cavity. At least, that's what it used to be thought Resno. He had hoped to see it for himself, but all the while he reminded himself it had been eighty years since Elysia was last seen. Much of the vegetation might not be viable. So long in an artificial envrironment would be hardful to the grass and trees, not to mention keeping the water pure. _Could be synthetic by now_. The thought disgusted him.

Now his heart was racing. Resno reached a door marked 'Habitation 5', and pushed it open. Beyond it lay his wildest dreams given form.

Five kilometres of untouched human world stood before him, stretching right around in a cylindrical pattern. Fields of trees, artificial mountains and a massive lake at the far end all complemented the undeniably amazing sight of a world compressed onto the inside of a cylinder. Resno dropped to his knees before even realising it. He was crying. His dream was true. His world was true. The Gods may have destroyed the colonies but not his dream. Elysia was intact, and now, he knew, it would lead them all to a new-

Resno stopped. Something had caught his eye on the far side of the inner wall of the station, or from his perspective, above him. It was large, and from his position looked like a termite mound pushed out from the very wall of the cylinder itself.

"It's a city" said a marine next to him, who was looking through a pair of binoculars.

"See anything?"

"Nah… I mean it has great architecture but... it looks dead…"

"Great… we find the most amazing missing vessel in the history of the colonies and it's got a zombie city in it."

- I - I - I -

Red-Cavil walked down the corridor and turned to see an observation annex overlooking a large room lined with transparent glass. Blue-Cavil was standing by the observation room door.

"I was beginning to worry you hadn't heard the call" he said.

"I was considering not…" Red-Cavil looked through the thick glass. Thirty or so humanoid Cylons, of varying models, were inside. Some paced, some were seated, a couple were at the back of the room in a foetal position.

"What are these Cylons doing in here? Biological test?" asked Red-Cavil.

Blue-Cavil shook his head. "These Cylons have psychological problems stemming from one common issue. Put simply, when they downloaded their sleeper programmes failed to activate."

Red-Cavil saw a Six crying, then turned to see a Five smashing his head against the glass, drawing blood on his forehead.

"Hey! No point in doing that, you'll only resurrect again" said Blue-Cavil.

Red-Cavil turned himself away. "As much as I enjoy a good peepshow I don't see why I'm here."

Blue-Cavil pressed a button, and the large glass doors slid back. "I'll show you."

Both men entered and walked over to a Three who was sitting with her head against the glass wall. Red-Cavil observed her with little interest.

"It's a D'Anna. So what? Slap her around and snap her out of it-"

"It's not D'Anna. If you hadn't been ranting about Daniel all week I might've missed it in interrogation. This is Marie Bragen. Daniel's wife."

Red-Cavil quickly knelt down beside the woman. She pulled back out of sheer terror. He smiled.

"So now we have a new weapon. If we offer you as bait maybe Daniel will come running-"

"Daniel" Marie spat, "Why should I care about that frakker. He killed me, shut the door in my face and left me to die while he jumped away. He didn't even try and save our… our…"

The poor woman broke down in tears again. Blue-Cavil leaned forward.

"This woman has no emotional link to Daniel anymore, Brother, and from the sounds of it he has none to her. That isn't the reason I brought you here. Turns out this sleeper programme, this 'Marie', wasn't in our original database. Someone else put it there."

Red-Cavil instantly became aware of the situation, and finally knew how he'd been played all those years ago.

"It was put there by someone else… our dear mother… Ellen Tigh…"

At the sound of her name, Marie instantly became a different person. A shattered figure one minute, full of confidence the next.

"It took you a while, John" said Marie.

"Don't call us that" he said back.

"It's too late anyway. By now I imagine, Daniel is long gone and you'll never find him."

Red-Cavil knew she was telling the truth. He studied her for a second before finally standing. Marie turned and looked back out the glass wall.

"This model is so corrupted I don't know where to begin" said Red-Cavil. "There are too many layers of sleepers in there. Box her immediately."

Both Cavils left the room. As they walked back down a corridor, Blue-Cavil spoke again.

"You think he saw through the sleeper programme?" he asked.

"Undoubtedly. A loose slip here or there and suddenly Daniel would've tried anything to remove her. The nuclear strike gave him that opportunity."

"From her testimony it sounds like a sleeper programme of his own came active. He showed no emotion when he shut her out of the transport."

Red-Cavil laughed at the irony. "A Cylon sleeper programme designed to kill Cylons. Our dear mother had one hell of a sense of humour, didn't she?"

- I - I - I -

"Levels are becoming too intense. We have to move the civilians out. We have the drugs to treat but I'd rather not treat at all."

Quinn had been with Thane walking through the cramped space of West Aquaria. Survivors of East Aquaria now lined the corridors, but radiation sickness had come with them. Thane had lost another twelve people this morning, and several more were sick. Some still had burns or scars from the explosion that had destroyed the flight pod and killed over a hundred and sixty people.

"You want somewhere else to go?"

"Yes, we need a new home" said Thane. "We can't say on this ship any longer. She's too far gone."

Quinn nodded. He couldn't help but feel he'd let Admiral Nellis down. This ship was his legacy, a vessel that would survive when others would fall, and now it was dying beneath him, and worse; killing it's crew.

"I'm waiting to hear a report… then I might be able to accommodate all of us."

- I - I - I -

Bragen stepped down to the hanger level and saw the Raptor waiting for him. He looked around; only a few knuckle draggers were busy at a Viper five tubes away, otherwise it was practically deserted. He climbed aboard the Raptor and let the automatics do the rest.

In CIC, Janley waited for the signal.

"Roger Raptor 310, cleared for launch" she said.

In space the tiny Raptor slipped out of the Starboard flight pod and once it was a safe distance from the Battlestar it jumped away.

Janley looked up as Quinn entered.

"Sir, Colonel Bragen has departed ship in a Raptor, and as requested no one made a 'song and dance' about it" said Janley. "May I ask where he's heading?"

"Not at this stage" said Quinn, grabbing the handset off the combat table. "Get me Resno."

Janley pressed a button and after a few seconds, the intercom whined.

"Resno, this is Neptune Actual Report your status."

"Sir… I'm…. I'm… well…"

"Come on Resno, get on with it, we've got people dying over here. What's your verdict?"

"Sir I've just been for a swim in Lake Taupo."

Quinn almost dropped the handset. Lake Taupo was on Aquaria.

"Repeat your last. Now."

"Sir, the Elysians brought a piece of Aquaria with them, right down to the minerals in the water. It's good, it's pure… we can survive here sir. I recommend moving-"

"Good enough for me. Janley, begin evacuation. Helm, dock with the station, match rotation."

Neptune pushed forward slowly, the already deployed umbilicals stretched out from the hull, connecting with their counterparts on the station. Forward docking hatches completed the handshake and appied pressure and atmosphere.

"Attention all hands, this is the Commander. We have come to a crossroads in our lives. A few days ago the Cylons took almost everything from us, and since then we've been on the run. We can confirm that the Elysia out there _is_ habitable, and thus… I am giving the order to abandon ship."

A few surprise gasps were heard around the room, most of all from Janley.

"This ship is dying... she can't sustain human life anymore... so we're gonna set her adrift and move over to the Elysia. This is where the Gods wanted us to be, so this is where we'll be."

With that, Quinn put the handset back and walked from the room. Janley hesitated; Quinn hadn't handed over authority to anyone. Then she made her decision.

"Begin evacuation. Transfer all food, medicines, clothing and any other essentials to the starboard hanger ready for departure, have heads of department catalogue and decide what comes and what stays. Organise someone to assist Doc Thane with the medical areas and to shift patients to the forward docking ports." Janley tried to think on her feet, _what would Resno say?_ "Send a message to East Aquaria, tell them we're moving out."

- I - I - I -

Quinn was losing it. The thought of the finish line so close was making him forget the basics; thankfully Janley had filled in for him. _This time_.

Quinn rounded a corner and saw a group of civilians heading for the forward service ways. A boy, maybe ten years old, was lagging behind, and slumped against a wall. Quinn ran over to see him.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Fine" said the boy, in an angry tone. "I don't see why we have to leave again. I've already moved."

"You were on the Aegean?" asked Quinn, checking the boy out medically anyway, although clearly the boy was just being stroppy.

"Yup. We had to leave that, then we got into that other town on the far side of the ship, then that caught fire so we had to move over here, now we're leaving again." The boy started to cry. "I just wanna go home."

Quinn gave the boy a hug. "Where are you from?" he asked.

"Milford, a little fishing village on Aquaria" the boy replied, wiping his nose on Quinn's jacket.

"I know that place" Quinn said. "You guys catch the biggest fish east of the Bremen sea."

The boy nodded. "My dad was a fisherman. At least he used to be."

Quinn knelt down to the boy. "There are fish on Elysia. You can begin again."

The boy lightened up. "Really?"

"Oh yes... big ones, little one... those frakkin' ugly ones with the big teeth that glow in the dark..."

The boy smiled. An adult said frak to him. Kids never change.

"I'm gonna tell my dad!" he said, and ran off after the group. Quinn smiled. Once they were all aboard the Elysia, he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

- I - I - I -

"What are you watching?" asked Mason as he walked up to Resno and Janley overlooking a screen. Resno had returned to get a few things and help with evactuation.

Mason watched as the security camera footage played of the aft port flight pod section. A Viper was firing off into the distance. Suddenly a warhead appeared, growing bigger and bigger, getting closer to the entry way. A shot from the Viper finally deflected it downwards, where it hit the deck and detonated the nuke, causing the screen to go white.

"I'm trying to work out which pilot saved us" said Resno, zooming the image in a bit more. "Just for history's sake. Resolution is crap on these things. Can't work out the ID on the tail-"

"It's Valmar" said Mason, trying to keep his voice from breaking. Resno and Janley looked closer.

"How can you tell?" asked Resno.

"The tail itself."

Resno saw the tail of the Viper was red. At first he didn't understand but then he spotted four additional Vipers were in the same shot; they all had yellow tails.

"When we raided the Long Haul for her Viper complement" began Mason, "we found thirty nine of them had yellow tails… and one red. As chief pilot, Valmar chose that one for herself. She said it would make for a more tempting target if Cylons ever knew what it stood for, but then again Cylons would just shoot any Viper that…"

Mason trailed off, then turned and walked out of CIC.

"That's sad" said Janley. "She saved the ship… if that nuke had gotten any further in we would've lost the whole flight pod and probably the ability to jump."

Resno didn't say anything just stared at the screen. Janley watched him.

"You liked her… didn't you?" Again Resno said nothing. "The other night… when we were… intimate… you were thinking about her weren't you?"

"Janley-"

"Why? What has she got that I haven't-"

Resno pulled her in close and kissed her. When he finally pulled away she saw he was about to cry.

"We all have our faults, we all have our wants. Ever since the colonies fell I've been trying to maintain the good officer on the outside but inside I just wanna drink, frak and be merry like everyone else. Truth be told… I've been searching my whole life for a girl like you… I want to be with you, spend the rest of my life with you… marry me, please."

Janley hesitated, but knew deep down she wanted this too, beyond what had happened. "You didn't need to say please" she said, and hugged him again.

"I know it's only been six days, and relationships that begin with someone shooting dead a hostage taker don't usually end well, but I want you to know, that thing with Valmar-"

She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him in close. Resno had never seen Janley like it before. _He liked it._

"I can't forgive you for what's happened, or what thoughts you've had about other women, only the Gods can do that. But understand this; if you ever so much as look at another female again I'll chops your balls off and fire them out of a launch tube. Ramsey, we're on a break."

Major Ramsey didn't get chance to say a word as Janley dragged Resno from the room. And in all the years that followed, Resno would often think back to that final day aboard the Neptune, and considered it the best sex he'd ever had.

- I - I - I -

Quinn packed the last of his books away into a box and gave it to an orderly waiting at the door. He turned and looked around at his empty quarters. Large stuff like his couch and bed would stay behind. He never liked his bed anyway.

Glancing at the wall, he realised he'd forgotten to take down his map of Aquaria that Bragen had given him. He gentle took it down and looked at it.

It was a sad time. He knew he was not only saying goodbye to the colonies forever but also to aspects that the colonies made. The table in the officer's mess was made from original Virgon Pine, but would stay behind. No doubt the last in the universe, but wouldn't survive what Bragen was planning. He could now understand fully why a couple of days ago there was a mad rush to salvage parts of the Aegean, and other civilians vessels.

Then there was his couch. Brown, worn, made of Sagitarron leather. Very relaxing to sit in, read a book, have a drink...

_Another reason to get rid of it_ he thought to himself. He'd been drinking a lot ever since the colonies were destroyed. Thankfully, his supply had finally run out last night; even if he hadn't he probably would've destroyed it. He wanted to change, wanted to be a better man, better officer, but now it was all over. All of it.

"Are you alright sir?"

Quinn turned to see Janley standing in the doorway.

"Yes lieutenant, did you need me?"

Janley entered, nervously. "No sir, I just... well it's-"

"Spit it out lieutenant."

"Sir... is it wise to board the Elysia? I mean, we haven't even finished our sweeps yet?"

Quinn motioned for Janley to sit on his couch.

"I saw you at the service a couple of days ago. You read scripture?"

"Yes sir, every evening before bed."

"Good" he said, rubbing his hands through his hair. "What if I told you I'm going by faith. Trusting my instincts. For the past week I've been trying to do this as an officer, but I'm also a man of the Gods. Father Ardrossan spoke of messengers from the Gods appearing before mortals to guide them to salvation. I believe Valmar did see something in the clouds of Zeus, something that wasn't from our plain of existence."

"You think it was a messenger, sir?"

"I believe it was. Resno was sure of it too; the words spoken to Valmar were written in his HisSciFi novels."

Janley giggled. "The new Scrolls of Pythia."

Quinn laughed. Janley was joking naturally but she was absolutely correct. The path to salvation of the human race was written down in a novel for teenagers.

"Despite all that's gone before, whatever the frak is waiting for us over there, this is where our journey ends. We're leaving this ship and not coming back. Can I ask... when I announced we were leaving you seemed shocked."

"Not from that sir. It's just... ever since I was fourteen when I went for a school visit aboard the Battlestar Chimera, I had the urge to serve, to join the colonial military. When I finally get that chance… we're leaving it all behind."

Quinn smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. "Not all of it. The future is a terrifying place. Every time you think you've chosen a path something knocks you or distracts you down another one. Now we get to be pioneers of a new frontier. We have to begin again... and I think Mr Resno would like to help us out there."

Janley smiled. "We already have-"

"Time and a place Janley, time and a place."

Janley laughed, nodded, and stood up. "Can I just say then sir... it's been an honour to serve with you" and saluted.

Quinn stood and saluted back, and Janley turned to leave.

Quinn sat back down on the couch one last time, feeling the cool leather beneath his fingertips. Then he stood, grabbed the last box on the floor and put the map of Aquaria in it. He took one last lingering look at the room, smiled and walked out.

- I - I - I -

After six hours of unloading, the ship was empty. Quinn boarded the Raptor with about ten others, and was graciously given the co-pilots seat. He looked out at the hanger of the now barren starboard flight pod. Almost all of the Vipers were either in the air or already docked with the Elysia. As the huge station had no launch tubes the Vipers would be manually launched from the hanger if needed, although Quinn knew their supply of Tylium would run out eventually.

"Sir" said Checkmate, seated beside him, "Lieutenant Janley reports all hands now disembarked. We're the last ship."

Quinn took one last look at his hanger. His ship. "Proceed."

The elevator whined on automatics and took them up, greeting them with a view of the front of Elysia. Quinn smiled. _Home_ he thought.

At the Raptor took off Checkmate performed one last flyby of the great ship. The shattered port flight pod a stark reminder of the war they were leaving behind, and the hope they would be free of such torment here.

"Sir, Chief Kebble said something interesting before we left" said Checkmate. "I thought we had twenty five functional Vipers but he said only nineteen were coming with us. Where are the others?"

"Six of them were scuttled for parts. The shells stay behind."

Quinn knew it was a lie, but it was necessary.

"What's gonna happen to her sir?" said Checkmate, nodding out the window as the passed by Neptune's bow.

"Once the all clear is given, she's gonna leave us here and jump away. After that, she's gonna take on the Cylons one final time, and hopefully give the colonials one last great victory."

Checkmate had no idea what that meant as he looped the Raptor into Elysia's hanger and brought the small craft to rest.

- I - I - I -

Bragen awoke to find himself still inside the Raptor. The dream again. They had to stop.

_You're not real_ he told himself.

He looked at the clock. An hour left. "Damn you Quinn" he said.

He reached for a drink when a massive flash occurred outside his window. After a second he looked out and saw the massive shape of the Neptune appear before him.

"Son of a bitch..."

- I - I - I -

Quinn stood on a hill overlooking the field which the Colonials had decided to claim their own. In the distance, the alien city tempted Quinn to leave everyone here and simply go explore. It looked menacing yet inviting at the same time. Long range scans had failed to detect movement, but Quinn vetoed any trip to the city just yet. He noticed Resno walk up beside him.

"Two thousand, two hundred and eight people all present and accounted for, sir."

Quinn shook his head. "Not all of them."

"Officially, he's still here sir." Resno stared back at the crowd. "Was it wise to do that sir? I mean... Elysia is amazing but it could also be dangerous. What if whoever lives in that city up there tries to come and kill us?"

"We take it as it comes. We've been on the run for days. These people need a rest. I wouldn't want-"

"Look!"

Quinn and Resno looked for where the scream came from. A man at the far end of the camp was pointing up at the opposite side of the cylinder. Quinn followed specifically where he was pointing, and froze.

From the alien city a trio of atmospheric shuttles had taken off from a central platform and were slowly heading around the Cylinder towards their location.

"Resno..." Quinn muttered to himself. Resno knew what he meant, and tried to comfort him. "If I'm right they should be colonial refugees from Aquaria. A couple of generations removed, mind."

They flyers continued to advance. "I'll give you a thousand cubits if you pretend to be me" said Quinn, jokingly. Quinn saw panic brewing in the crowds below.

Quinn and Resno raced down the hill towards the Colonials who had begun to scatter. Quinn knew it would turn into a fatal stampede if he didn't act fast.

"They're human!" he bellowed out. The crowd stopped running and looked at him, and then to incoming visitors.

Resno was trying to keep up with him. "Sir, I was only guessing based on-"

"I know what you were suggesting" Quinn began, "but we have nowhere else to go. I'd rather we lose no one if they're friendly than any other alternative." They reached the bottom of the hill. A squad of marines had formed near a group of people trying to get away. "Resno, have the marines circle the survivors and prepare for combat but do NOT have any weapon raised until I give the order."

"Yes sir" and with that Resno sprinted off to the nearest guard. Quinn looked up at the visitors. Another minute at most.

Janley had emerged from the pack and was almost near him. "What do you think?"

Quinn didn't want anything to do with them. He hated being an ambassador. The thought of dealing with other cultures terrified him. He was a xenophobe of the highest order. He didn't even like leaving Aquaria, but serving on a Battlestar meant travel. Now, as the first of the shuttles landed nearby, he was being forced into it. Maybe he was born into it. Whatever plans the Gods had for him, it began all those days ago, in that Raptor ride to the Neptune. and this was the next stage. _It comes down to faith_.

"I think... we should meet the neighbours."

Quinn strolled towards the shuttle, which by now had been joined by a second; the third stayed aloft above the others, probably as a watchtower in case the guests from the Neptune were hostile.

A hatch cycled open and a human stepped out.

Quinn was now only a few metres away, and saw that Resno, that young ensign who days ago was starting his career, was right all along. The man held up a hand in a friendly gesture.

"Greetings. My name is Hensil. Welcome to Elysia."

- I - I - I -

Bragen was standing alone in CIC, taking one last look around. "Sorry" he said. He knew no one but the ship itself would hear him. He noticed a cardboard box sitting on the combat table with a bow on it. He opened the lid to see inside and smiled.

"Thank you, Commander" he said to himself.

He crossed over to the FTL Control console and inserted the command key. He triggered the FTL and heard the non-essential systems power down as the energy was shunted to the engines. He turned the command key and held his breath.

- I - I - I -

In orbit of a dusty red planet with minimal cloud cover, the Neptune blinked into existence. Bragen ran to the helm control, and began taping in coordinates. Behind him, DRADIS began screaming alerts as oncoming targets came closer. Bragen ignored them for now, although he knew there would be many targets about to bear down on him. He checked the settings. The waveforms rose and peaked as he hit the right frequency.

"There you are..." he said to himself, and adjusted the helm coordinates accordingly.

A vibration was felt through the ship as a missile impacted on their starboard side. _Time to party_ he thought to himself, as he grabbed the helm control lever and pushed it forward with all his might. Outside, the sublight engines roared to life and sent the ship towards the planet.

Bragen checked the instruments, and worked out he had about seven minutes. He ran to the weapons console and began imputing targeting coordinates for the ship's artillery. The large weapons opened fire on any target that came into range. Bragen set the ship's weaponry to auto-fire, then turned off the ammunition count alarm. After all, they would never be needed again.

- I - I - I -

In a massive orbital structure in high orbit above the Cylon Homeworld, two Cavils were informed of the developments.

"Thank you" said Blue-Cavil as the Eight that had told him turned and left in a hurry. He turned to his brother. "It would appear our little lost sheep has come home by itself."

"The Neptune? Here?" Red-Cavil replied, almost too eager for a rematch. "Order all ships to converge on that Battlestar. Use nukes if you have to. I want Daniel DEAD."

"Listen to yourself brother, you're becoming obsessed with a loose end."

"Loose end? Do you remember what the Sevens meant to our beloved mother? Why we did what we did? He has to die-"

"And he will. All raider squadrons in the area are converging on the Neptune as we speak. Two Basestars have jumped in and will soon eradicate it." Red-Cavil began to speak but the other held up his hand. "And the answer to your next question is no, we won't be using nukes. Not this close to the Colony."

"I'm gonna see it for myself. I have to make sure he's dead this time."

Red-Cavil left the room. Moments later, a third Cavil entered, dressed all in black. "We have a problem-"

The Blue-Cavil sat in a chair. "Track his personality to the Hub, and sever it. I'm afraid our brother has developed a fault which only pure termination will fix. Then jump the Hub; I don't think it and the Colony should be in the same area of space. Too risky-"

"That's not what I meant" said Black-Cavil. "The Neptune isn't attacking the fleet. She's on full burn and heading for the atmosphere."

"A suicide run? But why-"

"Brother - he's heading for the Citadel!"

- I - I - I -

Red-Cavil entered the command room and immediately tried to take charge.

"Order Basestar Nine to the following co-ordinates" he said. A Three turned to face him.

"That will put them right in the path of the Battlestar!"

"You're a genius. DO IT!" yelled Red-Cavil.

- I - I - I -

Bragen was by now in the thick of the battle. Two Basestars and what looked like hundreds of Raiders were pounding the ship repeatedly with missile strikes. DRADIS looked almost entirely red given the amount of enemy targets he was seeing.

DRADIS screamed another warning and saw a Basestar had moved into his flight path. He adjusted the helm, putting the ship into a sharp dive and fired the forward batteries. The impact tore off two of the lower struts, causing the Basestar to attempt to evade. Bragen tried to dive the ship under it but wasn't quite fast enough.

The Neptune collided with the remaining strut, breaking it in two but seriously damaging the forward section of the Battlestar. The Basestar tumbled off into space, out of control and fire coming from all decks.

- I - I - I -

"This has gone far enough!" yelled Blue-Cavil.

Red-Cavil ignored him. "Order Basestar 23 to set their jump coordinates to Neptune's exact location. I want both ships to annihilate each other."

"They can't, FTL jammers prevent ships jumping this close to orbit" replied the Three.

"Frak!" yelled Red-Cavil.

Four Centurions entered and took up position near the doorway. Blue-Cavil identified them and nodded. The lead Centurion did nothing.

He had hoped not to use them, but he had secretly removed their inhibitors so now Red-Cavil could be targeted. Or he'd use his own pistol to finish the job.

Either way, his brother wouldn't be leaving this room alive.

- I - I - I -

Another Basestar had joined the other two and had begun pounding the crippled Battlestar as she edged ever closer to the planet. The ship was now travelled much faster than the Cylons expected, and had started to feel the effects of the planet's gravity well. Cylons were concentrating on the flight pods as they still expected to be greeted by a squadron of Vipers at any moment. The heavily damaged port flight pod was taking hit after hit, and much of the inner hull had already been compromised in that area.

Inside the Battlestar there were explosions going off all around but Bragen was determined to hang on. He flipped open an authorisation crate and saw both two activation keys had already been turned. He then entered the command codes and sat back.

- I - I - I -

In the launch tubes along the spine of the great ship, in the belly of the cargo bays and inside the half dozen Vipers Bragen had been given from Quinn, a total of sixty two nuclear devices became active.

- I - I - I -

Bragen sat back, hearing the great ship groaning and creaking under the strain of the assault, and the gravitational forces which were tearing at her forward hull. He wondered how he should spend his last five minutes of life - try to complete the mission obviously, but he had some many questions he wanted answered.

What was that process Simon was on about? Cylon Projection? He started to think of those words over and over, of the past, of meeting Quinn, of falling for Marie, of his mother-

His mother! He had vague memories of her, but was this important? He felt the room grow brighter, the metal and glass seemed to slip away all around him, until he closed his eyes to get his bearings… and was suddenly in a strange place.

He was no longer on a Battlestar; that much was certain. Around him, circular lights illuminated the chamber. A transparent wall lay at one end. A red strip of light seemed to run all around the walls of the room and disappeared into a wall at the other end.

Bragen stood up, and immediately took shelter as he heard gun fire in the corridor. As he poked his head up behind the bed, an older woman entered the room, holding a pistol and looking back through the half-closed door. She slammed the door shut and entered a code, taking a step back, surveying the door as if to make sure what she'd done would stay true. She tucked the gun into her trousers and looked around.

She saw Daniel hiding behind the bed, and held out her arms as if her were a small child who grazed his knee.

"It's OK Danny" she said.

Bragen stood up and walked up to meet her, taking her hands in his.

"Mom…?" he said, unsure of what was going on. He sounded almost like his daughter...

"Yes baby," she said, "it's me. Don't worry, things are gonna be fine now."

"Mom… mom, what happened?"

"John. John has decided that the world isn't going the way he would like and demands there be a sacrifice, but it's gonna be OK, because I've prepared for this moment."

"Mom, what do you mean?"

The woman stroked his hair, smiling proudly. "There's a ship about the leave the colony. As soon as you're on board, it'll jump back to the human colonies, and you'll start a new life there."

"What about you?"

She shook her head. "I won't be coming with you. No one is leaving this room alive. I made mistakes along the way but I want to make sure my proudest achievement - you - survives to see the light of another day."

She pulled the pistol from her trousers and aimed it at his chest. He stepped back in shock.

"What are you-"

"It's the only way Daniel. You'll resurrect aboard the transport. A Three has been memory-wiped and will become your wife. You won't even suspect anything has transpired because… I'm gonna wipe your memory too. Sometimes… when you resurrect you remember your last memory, regardless of how much conditioning has been used, so you may remember this one day, far in the future, and if that's true, please remember this; I love you. As much as any woman could love her child."

"Oh mom…"

Gunfire started right outside the room, and the door began to give way.

"I love you Daniel. Goodbye."

She pulled the trigger five times. Bragen felt a bright flash, and as the room faded from memory, his last image was a squad of centurions entering the room, and his mother putting the pistol in her own mouth.

- I - I - I -

Bragen snapped back into reality, the room shaking violently as alarms and warnings flashed up on every console in the room. Bragen got up and checked their altitude.

Neptune was inside the atmosphere. Not long now he thought.

A pre-programmed command sequence activated from the battle computer controlling the launch bays on the starboard flight pod. Seconds later, six vipers streaked out of the ship and away under computer control, actively seeking their targets.

Outside, raiders too slow or busy to deal with the vipers maintained their futile attack on the Neptune. Many were travelling too fast and burned up in the atmosphere, others simply couldn't match the great ship as she reached terminal velocity.

Bragen sat in a chair, listening to the ship in her final death throes, and smiled. He opened the cardboard box Quinn had given him, took out the shiny new pair of sunglasses, and put them on.

_I'll see you soon, mom._

- I - I - I -

Neptune blasted towards the ground at an amazing velocity. A handful of skin jobs standing atop the massive tower of the Citadel tried to flee to safety but it was too late.

With a tearing of metal that sounded like the war cry of a charging animal, Neptune smashed into the upper levels of the tower, five kilometers above the surface of the planet. The impact shattered the top floors and began a cascading explosion down the tower. The tower penetrated the starboard flight pod and almost ripping it from the ship, and caused the ship to roll.

Seconds later, Neptune collided with the base of the tower upside down, the force of the impact concertinaed the decks down upon themselves, spewing the contents of the ship onto the metallic surface of the Cylon city. Sublight engines tore free, the last of the Tylium stores caught fire and the downward thrust of the ship caused the ground at the base of the tower to collapse.

In the bowels of the great ship, fifty six nuclear warheads detonated simultaneously.

A blossoming explosion the brightness of a star erupted from the base of the tower, which evaporated in an instant. The glowing shockwave ripped the city apart, slamming into buildings and defense embankments and turning them to dust.

At the outskirts of the city, a skin job stood atop one of six smaller towers, each a kilometer high and watched as the horror unfolded before him. Then a noise distracted him enough to look up, and saw a Colonial Viper heading straight for his location. Two centurions beside him opened fire, and managed to clip its wing but it was too late.

The viper slammed into the observation tower at full thrust. Hidden deep inside the Viper below the fuselage, one of the six remaining nuclear warheads activated, and the last image the skin job saw before he woke up in a resurrection tank was an orange shockwave tearing his body into a billion atoms.

- I - I - I -

From orbit, Red-Cavil could visibly see the damage caused by the Neptune. A circular shockwave was slowly spreading outwards from where the central tower once stood. As he watched, six smaller shockwaves from each of the observation towers were now coming into view.

"This can't have happened… this shouldn't have happened…" he said, shaking his head.

Blue-Cavil moved to stand behind him, pistol in his hand.

"It did brother, and I'm sorry to say, it was a big frak-up on your behalf."

Red-cavil turned. "Me?"

"You had the chance to destroy him yesterday and you failed. Time to pay the ferryman."

Red-Cavil moved to stand in the middle of the room, all eyes on him.

"Not me, brother! I knew we should've made sure that scum had been purged from all of reality but you wouldn't listen! _None_ of you listened to me!"

Blue-Cavil raised his pistol at his brother, no emotion in his face. "Three, jump the colony. We're leaving this planet."

A Three responded and began jump prep.

"You're still not listening!" screamed Red-Cavil.

"Do you know what this incident has caused us? The Citadel is gone, much of what we created over the last forty years has been destroyed forever."

"Irrelevant" said Red-Cavil. "We can rebuild-"

"The birthing tanks" said Blue-Cavil, targeting his pistol at his brother's head. "The original resurrection technology the Five from Earth created for us has been destroyed. Our over-confidence will be our downfall. Rather than keep the technology here or place them at various locations around the galaxy we now have to make sure any surviving Colonial doesn't destroy what we have left. We can't reinvent resurrection, it's beyond our science."

"Frak them" said Red-Cavil, still largely unaware of the danger in front of him. "Humans are weak. We will soon dominate them all."

"For us, yes, but for you, that time has come and gone. You'll note there are no longer any Resurrection Ships or the Hub in range, and tanks on the Colony are temporarily suspended. Like the Sevens, you're about to become history."

"Poetic nonsense. Get it over with then, frakker."

"Gladly" he said, and pulled the trigger.

- I - I - I -

Quinn stood at the edge of the pier; the vast expanse of water from the lake covered a full kilometre of the cylinder's length. He looked down at his hand and saw the two diamond-shaped pins that up until ten minutes ago resided near his jugular vein.

"Are you sure you want to do this, sir?"

"Yes, and don't call me sir anymore. My name is Benjamin. This action I'm about to undertake removes all links to the Colonial military, of which I am hereby stepping down from. I'm no longer your commanding officer. We are no longer in the colonial military. Do you understand that?"

Resno nodded. "Yes sir- er, Benjamin."

Quinn smiled. With one almighty heave he threw the pins into the water which landed with a small 'plop'.

Hensil and his daughter Kyra waited at the end of the pier for Quinn and Resno to return.

"You didn't need to do that Mr Quinn. You could have simply… removed them" said Hensil.

"Tradition" said Quinn, "my father was a baker. On the day of his retirement he went down to the real Lake Taupo and threw his favourite rolling pin into the water."

"How very symbolic" said Kyra with a smile. _Gods she's beautiful_ thought Quinn.

"Now that you've dealt with that" began Hensil, putting his arm around Quinn's shoulders, leading him from the lake. "We have a proposition for you. Elections are coming up soon and the man that lead the survivors of the colonies to Elysia is quite popular at the-"

"No."

Hensil stopped. "I'm sorry."

"No disrespect Mr Hensil but my days of leading are over. That wasn't just me washing my hands with the Colonial military over there, I'm done for good. I want a small job, I want a wife and kids, I wanna climb those mountains over there. I've had enough."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes. Look, I was never a great leader. I always followed in the shadow of my former commander. Refused promotion where I could just to stay with him and take the easy road. When the attacks happened I never stepped up to the plate. I hired a Cylon as my EXO. That's how bad I was!"

Resno stepped forward, shaking his head. "Begging your pardon 'mister' Quinn but you're very wrong. You got us away from the initial Cylon attack, you rescued hundreds of civilians, you had the idea to use the civilian ships as mobile bombs, you saved the crew of the Aegean, you managed to save the ship even when a nuke mortally wounded her, should I go on? You are a hero, and despite what you... 'order' me to do I'll always call you 'sir'."

Quinn couldn't help but stare. Six days ago this young cadet was fresh off the assembly line and now here he was correcting his commanding officer. _Former_ commanding officer.

Quinn put an arm around Resno's shoulders then turned him towards Hensil. "Mr Hensil, may I present your candidate for the next elections."

"Oh wait, sir, no, I-"

"You've always wanted to find the Elysia. No doubt you've had fantasies about living aboard her, what you'd do if she was ever found. Surely Station Commissioner was one of those."

Resno blushed as confirmation. Quinn smiled. "Do your best, make me proud and above all... trust your instincts."

Resno didn't know what to do, but when Hensil offered his hand, he shook it.

"One last thing Mr Hensil" said Quinn, aware they were about to leave the shore. "In all of your time here, has anyone left the station at all?"

Hensil nodded. "Yes, only three ships, at varying times, the last about ten or twelve years ago. The only one to never make it back. We always discourage ships leaving to try and return home. Being so far away the chances of making it are slim. No FTL you see. Only the station could do that, and they died eighty years ago."

"Well they made it. Right the way home" said Quinn.

"They did?" said Hensil.

"Really?" said Resno.

Quinn reached into his pocket and pulled out one of Resno's novels. "Was anyone on one of those three ships called Trevelyan by any chance?"

Quinn held up the novel so they could read the cover:

_Star Angel_

_by A. P. Trevelyan._

"Andrew! He survived after all!" yelled Hensil, grabbing the book off Quinn which caused the front cover to crease. Resno frowned.

"For whatever reason he opted not to tell anyone about what happened, instead, decided to write about it in a novel format. We've been... using it as navigation material ever since."

"And he told our story... oh Andrew... he was my cousin" said Hensil, tears forming in his eyes.

Quinn smiled, and looked back out to the great lake before them. "Story became legend, legend became myth... myth became HisSciFi novel."

Resno gently removed the novel from Hensil's fingers. "I'll let you read them if you're extra careful with it."

Hensil laughed, and ushered the young man from the shore.

"I've been meaning to thank you" said Kyra, stepping forward. "We've taken an inventory of what you brought over from your ship and it's very impressive. Our own Doctor Weaver thanks you for the DNA specimens."

"That's fine but tell your Doc not to go too far through them. They have to last the test of time."

Kyra laughed. "He won't. I didn't mean for him to sound so eager to populate Elysia with animals. After all, we'd have to feed them as well."

Quinn smiled, and looked back out at the lake. _So inviting_ he thought.

Kyra stepped up to Quinn. "Wanna go for a short walk?" she asked. "There's something I want to show you."

- I - I - I -

Quinn was by now a very relaxed man. In the plains in front of him, over two dozen more flyers had emerged from the city and landed before them, bringing food, water and whatever else the Neptune survivors needed. Quinn didn't spot it at first but the flyers were modified transport tubes from the Aquarian underground system connecting the distant continents. He reminded himself of how Elysia FTL'd away from Aquaria by accident, and so assumed the resources on the station were modified to help in whatever way they could.

After walking for twenty minutes, Quinn and Kyra had reached a high point of the plain, which she referred to as the plateau.

"From here you can see the entire cylinder" she said, learning back on the artificial grass. "At night, the lights are powered down to simulate darkness. I sometimes come up here just to relax. I miss watching a true sunrise."

"One day, I hope to return to Aquaria" said Quinn, "but I highly doubt it. Then again, I have a hope that my children, or children's children will do so."

"I have that same dream" she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Ever since we jumped out here we lacked the equipment or the skill to return home. Now that we have it we dare not, which makes our situation even more depressing."

"Trust me; you're in the best place here. The Cylons won't touch you while you stay in the nebula. You've cultivated crops and foods via artificial sunlight, so you have a self sustained colony, not to mention population-wise you've over doubled what you originally came here with. Counting us there's now ten thousand humans here."

"The fourteenth tribe" she said to herself. "It's something we called ourself initially. Now it's a very appropriate title."

Quinn took a gamble, scooted closer and put an arm round her. She pulled herself into his neck and snuggled with him. The lights around the station began to darken.

"Sunset" she said. "My favourite time of day."

"Yeah" said Quinn, "after all that's been going on, I look forward to finding out what tomorrow's gonna bring."

_**END OF DAY SIX**_


	7. EPILOGUE

**NEPTUNE'S ****LEGACY**

_**EPILOGUE – ELYSIA'S SONG**_

In the empty space above a lush blue world, space itself seemed to rip open and a large cylindrical vessel emerged. All over the behemoth, retro thrusters fired and gradually it slowed and managed to pull itself into a geosynchronous orbit.

In a large, white domed room, two men were standing either side of an oval table. A third man was checking a wall covered with steams of data.

"Commissioner" began one of the men at the table, "we have achieved planet fall as you desired. We are running tectonic scans now."

The other man at the table smiled with relief. "Good Prell, very good, let's see it."

Prell held his hand over the table. A red light pulsed below it, turned green and the centre of the table suddenly shimmered, rippled and finally displayed the starfield outside. The planet below slowly came into view.

The third man in the room turned and joined the other two.

"Solar cartography confirms there is a high probability we have arrived at specified destination. Of course, they are working from very unreliable records" he said, as he watched the planet fill the screen in the table.

"Commissioner Katashia, this is a cause for celebration. We should tell the others-"

Katashia shook his head. "Not until we confirm this is what we've been looking for. We've had false leads before."

"I agree, naturally, it's just... the Engineer's Guild reported further cracks in the hull. We don't know how much longer Elysia will sustain all of us."

The Commissioner moved to the exit. "Then we'd better find out quickly."

"Commissioner" began Prell, "we don't have enough information to accurately confirm this is one of the Twelve. Many of the records were destroyed in the Uprising. We can't possibly-"

"Can this planet sustain us?" asked Katashia as he reached the door.

"Well… yes Commissioner, it can, but-"

"Then our search is over. This is where we stay" he said, and walked from the room.

- I - I - I -

Katashia walked through the darkened corridors and stopped at a T-junction, observing the makeshift repair work done on the far corridor. The great structure was dying. Elysians everywhere knew it, and their efforts for half a century to try and find a new home were now finally at an end.

Katashia passed a door to the museum, and observed the remains of their history. Transports and fighter craft from hundreds of years ago, many of them damaged beyond repair after the Cylindrical Wars, or from Elysia herself as she began to fail. The one exhibit he always visited on his way to the Habitation area was the oldest in the museum.

A dull grey markings of the ship were slightly visible through the strong hexi-glass shell that protected it from the elements, but the shape had been preserved extremely well. The canopy had long since smashed, and one of the wings was broken, but overall the restoration was praised Elysia-wide. He knew the engines weren't original, neither was the seat within the craft, but that knowledge was never revealed publicly, instead left as a deniable rumour.

Since the museum had been abandoned by all curators five years ago, much of it had fallen into disrepair, but this was the one exhibit that had been maintained above all others. A cloth had draped over the sign in front of the small single-seater ship, and Katashia removed it gently. It was a basic sign, but the history books all told of its importance.

_Viper_ it read.

Katashia smiled at the ancient vessel, and wiped away a small tear that had formed.

"Goodbye" he said, and turned his back on it for the last time. He walked from the room, and threw a massive switch on the wall that plunged the room into darkness. Like much of the contents of Elysia, the museum wouldn't be going with them. Logistically it was a nightmare, and choosing what to save and what to leave had scholars, councillors and especially citizens arguing night after night, and in the end it was decided to simply leave it all behind.

- I - I - I -

Katashia stepped out onto the plateau and gazed at the cylindrical world he'd lived in for all the forty seven years he'd been alive. The polluted central axis formed a circular cloud mass that stretched down to about a kilometre above the ground, and looped back up the walls of the cylindrical world. The mass of machinery and large, sprawling cities covered almost all the interior of the cylinder. He remembered the stories from school of how barren the world was when it was first created to save man, and when the Great Quinn had arrived with refugees from the Twelve.

Katashia emerged from a row of Gel trees to sit in his favourite part of the plateau when he saw someone was sitting on his bench. At first he was worried the man hadn't heard the order to evacuate, but knew there was still time. As he came into view, Katashia stopped.

It was one of the Elders.

Katashia walked up slowly and took a seat beside the aged man. His hair was long and white, and draped down the man's back. He worries ceremonial robes with emblems of both the Mark of Elysia and the ancient symbol that represented the Twelve. Before he could speak, the old man turned to face him.

"Commission Katashia, it's good to see you again." He said, turning back to the view.

"Elder Sorgren, a pleasure to see you too." It was a lie, and he knew it. There was too much history between them but now wasn't the time to argue. "Elder, I'm sure you heard already that the order to evacuate Elysia has been given."

"Yes I was aware of that" Sorgren replied, "but I intend to stay."

"That wouldn't be advisable. The council has agreed to de-orbit Elysia into the green gas giant we've detected at the edge of the system. Once the last transport has left Elysia, we'll break orbit and send her on her final journey."

"I can remember the day this plan came into effect." Sorgren began. Katashia had heard this before, but sat back to listen. Elders were rarely seen out in public these days.

"Fifty two years ago I voted against the search for the Twelve, feeling we should adhere to the Great Quinn's teachings. On his death bed, the Great Quinn ordered the hatch sealed and no one to leave, for fearing the great evil would one day return. He also warned never to leave the blue nebula that guarded over us for the last ten thousand years. To do so would bring catastrophe."

Katashia smiled. He remembered that story from school as well. The Elders were long against public opinion and this decree was the final straw. An uprising against the Elders brought about a brief civil war, but also caused severe damage to Elysia itself. The pollution that hung above them was left over from the great fire that occurred more than half a century earlier. Cracks had appeared along the Acceleration Wall at the southern end of Elysia. They were so severe that the Engineer's Guild weren't sure if it could even be fixed. That alone prompted the decision to find the Twelve, not out of historical curiosity but out of necessity; the human race needed a new home.

As Katashia gazed back out of the cylindrical world, a large vessel took off from one of the three airports inside Elysia. He headed up into the smog and fly over them, heading for the hatch right behind them. Sorgren let out a sigh.

"I feel a fool for not supporting the plan sooner." He said. Katashia was quietly shocked. Elders seldom admitted their faults.

"Do not feel that way Elder, it's not your fault. We always knew we would leave this world one day. Humanity shouldn't live in a cage."

"They say we complained too much towards the end. That the sky would fall if we disobeyed the Great Quinn. I see now I was wrong, and must atone for my sins."

Sorgren stood, grabbing his cane for support. Katashia stood out of respect and protocol.

"I am a hundred and seventeen years old, Commissioner. My time is over. I know that many of the other Elders won't be accepted on the new homeworld. I'm sure many of them will do as I do, and remain behind."

Katashia didn't want to argue. "If that is what you wish, I will order anyone that sees you to leave you in peace."

Sorgren smiled, and bowed. Katashia bowed back. Sorgren tipped his cane and walked off towards the row of Gel trees. Prell came from the other direction.

"Commissioner, is everything alright?" he said, moving to stand beside Katashia, who was still watching Sorgren slowly leave the Plateau. When he had finally disappeared behind the trees, he turned to Prell.

"Sorgren isn't to be disturbed. By anyone." He said, looking back to the view.

- I - I - I -

As the shuttles left the massive spinning world for the last time, Katashia took one last look at the artificial structure that had been his home for all these years, then back to the planet coming into view. He decided he wanted to remember Elysia as it was, not as it was about to become.

Violent storms in the atmosphere of the green gas giant below Elysia illuminated the cylindrical hull. Retro rockets fired again and again as the planet's gravity well took hold of Elysia and pulled it into the atmosphere.

Seated back at the plateau, Sorgren watched as the buildings and homes of the former eighty thousand inhabitants crashed to the ground. A massive explosion somewhere above Sorgren through the clouds caused debris to pass across the zero gravity area to the other side of the cylinder.

"I don't believe it" said Sorgren. "The sky really is falling..."

Outside the few shuttles that had remained to watch the final moments of Elysia saw the eight kilometre long craft tumbling end over end, breaking in two and the forward section disintegrating under the pressure. The rest of the structure cracked and shattered, and slowly disappeared under the rolling clouds.

- I - I - I -

As Katashia stepped out of the hatch at the top of the ramp he looked ahead, and witnessed the many shuttles landing on the new world. Prell greeted him at the bottom of the ramp. Katashia held out his hand to prevent Prell from speaking as he took his first steps. It felt soft, and sandy. He had never experienced anything like it before. Sand on Elysia was always processed and artificial; the "good stuff" long since replaced.

"Commissioner, we are now unsure if this is the planet we have been seeking. It may take many decades to gather enough resources to build ships and leave to-"

"Calm yourself, Prell" said Katashia, smelling the fresh air. Beside them, a vast ocean stretched out as far as the eye could see. "Does it really matter if we have achieved our final goal? We have a new home world. Let our children's children deal with the search for the Twelve. Right now, we must lead our children into the light."

"As you wish Commissioner" said Prell, who turned and rejoined his family who were walking through the sand without shoes. Katashia watched as Prell picked up his youngest daughter, holding her high in the shining sun.

Katashia wanted to be alone from the group, and spied a small crest of a hill atop their beach encampment. After walking for fifteen minutes, he reached the top. The view was amazing. Behind them, a vast mountain range sprung up forum virtually nowhere, rising several kilometres into the sky. A few of the shuttles had already taken off to explore.

Katashia turned back and viewed the camp, which was now several thousand strong. He knew elsewhere on the planet, five similar camps were being set up. The relatively small land masses on this planet would mean sailing on an ocean would be the best way of greeting each other; their supply of fuel would run out eventually.

Katashia sat on a rock protruding from the tundra and said a small prayer, thanking the Great Quinn for guiding them to this place.

Afterwards he looked around and made sure no one else was watching, that any other Elysian had flowed him up the hill. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a parchment of paper. Gently unfolding it, he viewed its contents.

"We found you" he said.

The geography of the planet lay before him, already mapped out complete with locations and place names on them. But Katashia knew more than the others, that this map was not identical to the planet they were on.

For this map was created a thousand years earlier, by a man or woman during the time of the Great Quinn. It had been passed down through the generations in secret, so that humanity would one day return home, and begin again.

Other than the map, the Elysians had very little knowledge of the world they were now on. Of tidal information, of crust and tectonic displacement, of the very composition of the air they were breathing, only the name remained, throughout time and history, and for Katashia's family, who made it their legacy to find.

A world of hope. A world for their future.

A world known only as Aquaria.

_**THE END**_


End file.
